Preface.

Part 1. What Is Plant Breeding?.

1. Plant Breeders and Their Work.

Part 2. The Genetic Basis of Plant Breeding.

2. Reproduction in Crop Plants.

3. Gene Recombination in Plant Breeding.

4. Quantitative Inheritance in Plant Breeding.

Part 3. Tools of the Plant Breeder.

5. Variations in Chromosome Number.

6. Mutation.

7. Fertility-Regulating Mechanisms and Their Manipulation.

8. Biotechnology and Plant Breeding.

Part 4. Methods in Plant Breeding.

9. Breeding Self-Pollinated Crops.

10. Breeding Cross-Pollinated and Clonally Propagated Crops.

11. Breeding Hybrid Cultivars.

12. Breeding Objectives and Techniques.

Part 5. Germplasm Resources for Breeding Crop Plants.

13. Germplasm Resources and Conservation.

Part 6. Applications: Breeding Field Crops that are Self-Pollinated.

14. Breeding Wheat.

15. Breeding Rice.

16. Breeding Soybean.

Part 7. Applications: Field Crops Utilizing Hybrid Breeding Procedures.

17. Breeding Corn (Maize).

18. Breeding Sorghum.

Part 8. Applications: Field Crops with Miscellaneous Breeding Procedures.

19. Breeding Cotton.

20. Breeding Cross-Pollinated Forage Crops.

Part 9. Applications: Field Crops that are Vegetatively Propagated.

21. Breeding Potato.

22. Breeding Sugarcane.

Part 10. Maintenance and Seed Production of Improved Cultivars.

23. Cultivar Increase, Maintenance, and Seed Production.

Glossary.

Index

David A. Sleper, Ph.D, is Professor in the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri.

John M. Poehlman was Professor Emeritus, Department of Agronomy at the University of Missouri.