title: Genome engineering and plant breeding: impact on trait discovery and development.
abstract: New tools for the precise modification of crops genes are now available for the engineering of new ideotypes. A future challenge in this emerging field of genome engineering is to develop efficient methods for allele mining. Genome engineering tools are now available in plants, including major crops, to modify in a predictable manner a given gene. These new techniques have a tremendous potential for a spectacular acceleration of the plant breeding process. Here, we discuss how genetic diversity has always been the raw material for breeders and how they have always taken advantage of the best available science to use, and when possible, increase, this genetic diversity. We will present why the advent of these new techniques gives to the breeders extremely powerful tools for crop breeding, but also why this will require the breeders and researchers to characterize the genes underlying this genetic diversity more precisely. Tackling these challenges should permit the engineering of optimized alleles assortments in an unprecedented and controlled way.
authors.affiliation: INRA AgroParisTech, IJPB, UMR 1318, INRA Centre de Versailles, Route de Saint Cyr, 78026, Versailles Cedex, France. fabien.nogue@versailles.inra.fr.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nogué
authors.affiliation: INRA AgroParisTech, IJPB, UMR 1318, INRA Centre de Versailles, Route de Saint Cyr, 78026, Versailles Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Kostlend
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mara
authors.affiliation: INRA AgroParisTech, IJPB, UMR 1318, INRA Centre de Versailles, Route de Saint Cyr, 78026, Versailles Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Collonnier
authors.affiliation: Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics, CRAG (CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB), Campus UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Casacuberta
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D000069600:Plant Breeding / Q000379:methods*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics
keywords: Genetic diversity; Genome engineering; Plant breeding; QTLs; Site-directed nucleases