Heterosis Breeding

The discovery of heterosis has been recognised as one of the major landmarks in the annals of plant breeding. The author endeavoured to write Hererosis Breeding for the benefit of the students offering this course as also for the research workers and the practical plant breeders engaged in hybrid breeding programmes. The theme of this book is spread over six sections: Section one, introduces the subject briefly and gives a glimpse of the various milestones of the scientific discoveries upon which the whole realm of heterosis breeding is based. Section two, tries to seek an understanding of the phenomenon of the heterosis and churns out the available literature to get at the base of the heterosis phenomenon in living organisms, both higher and lower. Section three, summarises the available information with respect to the heterobeltiosis i.e. heterosis expressed over the better parent in various crop species commonly cultivated in India. Section four, explains the utilization of heterosis. Section five, discusses the genetic improvement of hybrid varieties. Section six, briefly charts out future prospects of heterosis breeding and denotes the impact that could possibly take place on the overall agricultural production programmes. The glossary of the technical terms and the list of references have been added for a better understanding of the text and also for further probing the available literature on heterosis by a conscientious worker in this area of research. In this book, the author has tried to introduce, explore and utilize the phenomenon of heterosis in producing commercial hybrids in various crop species commonly grown in the Indian sub-continent.