Abstract

BOTERO O, Kelly  and  ARIAS, Tatiana. The omics sciences used for crop improvement programs. Rev. Cienc. Agr. [online]. 2018, vol.35, n.2, pp.64-78. ISSN 0120-0135.  https://doi.org/10.22267/rcia.183502.92.

Population growth, climate change and the loss of ecosystem services are some of the challenges facing agriculture in recent decades to ensure long-term food security. Plant breeding programs can contribute to the development of genotypes adapted to new environmental conditions. The development and implementation of high-throughput sequencing technologies have accelerated breeding programs for crops that feed the world's population. This article reviews the main technological developments in “omics” used for genetic crop improvement. Here, we briefly discuss four technologies and their applications in the field of agriculture: phylogenomics, comparative genomics, comparative transcriptomics and marker assisted selection. These approaches allow to understand the evolutionary history of crops and their wild relatives, as well as identify the structure and function of genes of interest in agriculture. In addition, these help to reveal the expression of important genes in the domestication process and characterize individuals of agricultural species using molecular approaches that allow streamlining selection processes. It is necessary to implement genetic improvement programs that include the use of some or all of these technologies with the purpose of accelerating processes that can contribute to current agricultural challenges.

Keywords : Phylogenetics; Genomics; MAS; Transcriptomics..

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