Vol. 11, Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Anantha Sindhu

Abstract:
Genetic diversity is essential for plant survival in nature and crop enhancement. The significance of genetic diversity is now being identified as a distinct topic, due to the susceptibility of crops to pest and diseases and limited adaptability to climatic changes. The assessment of genetic diversity in crops has significant implications for plant breeding programmes and genetic resource conservation. The current cultivated wheat’s are the results of long evolution taken place around 10000 years ago. Due to hybridization, polyploidization, domestication, and mutation, the wheat genome exhibited fast and random changes during this evolutionary process. This has resulted in certain character modifications as well as gene loss. Even after then, genes were lost from landraces as a result of repetitive cultivation for certain characteristics. During 1960’s improvement in genetic diversity was observed due to green revolution by incorporating semi dwarf genes. Although modern cultivars does not contain all the genes of their progenitors. So it is important to incorporate lost genes into the modern cultivars for wheat improvement. With the advent of molecular techniques helps the plant breeders to develop new varieties by incorporating lost genes from landraces.