Wide Hybridisation - An Option for Improving Quality of Fruits in Plantation Crops

Abstract

Wild genetic resources are the potential provenance of desired genes for various characters of crop plants. Wide hybridization being an important plant breeding method has helped in expanding the gene pool of a crop when the desired variation is not sufficient or absent within the same gene pool. It plays a substantial role in transferring traits of interest like disease and insect resistance, improved quality, early growth, dwarfness, increased yield, abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants besides bringing changes in the mode of reproduction as well. The main barriers in wide hybridization occur as prezygotic and postzygotic barriers. Though fruits are considered as a significant component of a healthy diet, the sharp depletion in temperate fruits and fruit products has been marked in the past decades in the market. However, the barriers in the improvement of fruit crops can be overcome by using techniques involving distant crossing or wide hybridisation.