Essentials of Plant Breeding is a textbook for a first-semester course in plant breeding. Essentials of Plant Breeding was written as a prequel to Dr. Bernardo's first textbook, Breeding for Quantitative Traits in Plants. This prequel describes how modes of reproduction affect the choice of breeding methods, and outlines the breeding methods appropriate for self-pollinated, cross-pollinated, and asexually propagated species. In addition, Essentials of Plant Breeding includes a review of basic genetics; an introduction to the use of DNA markers in plant breeding; and a description of general features of breeding programs for field crops, vegetables and fruits, forages, turfgrasses, flowers and ornamentals, and tree and palm species.
Rex Bernardo is Professor and Endowed Chair in Corn Breeding and Genetics, Dept. of Agronomy and Plant Genetics University of Minnesota.