Biology 4218A Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Sclerotinia, Tissue Culture, Phomopsis
13 Dec 2016
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Pressures on agricultural systems: population growth, more pop in asia, less arable land relative; na has more arable land per person, climate change, consumer affluence. We choose the traits we want so crop plants have low genetic variation. Whether a trait is favourable for the wild or for domestication. In the past, people were worried about food production (abundance, cost, availability, variety), but now we worry about food safety (biotechnology (gmos), organic, e. coli/salmonella). Experimental farm of wheat yields at rothamsted (over 150 years): we see with novel agricultural practices (fallowing, herbicides, rotation) there is increased yield; with nothing added yield remains the same. Our current dependency on non-renewable resources like fossil fuels is unsustainable. 6 kcal needed for 1 kcal of food. London: soybeans and corn, used for animal feed mostly. Uniformity increases risk of catastrophes from disease. So selection focuses on disease resistance too. Recurrent selection: backcrossing to integrate resistance into favoured genetic background.
