Essay Harvesting the Promising Fruits of Genomics: Applying Genome Sequencing Technologies to Crop Breeding

Abstract: Next generation se-quencing (NGS) technologies are being used to generate whole genome sequences for a wide range of crop species. When com-bined with precise phenotyping methods, these technologies pro-vide a powerful and rapid tool for identifying the genetic basis of agriculturally important traits and for predicting the breeding value of individuals in a plant breeding population. Here we summarize current trends and future prospects for utilizing NGS-based technolo-gies to develop crops with im-proved trait performance and in-crease the efficiency of modern plant breeding. It is our hope that the application of NGS technolo-gies to plant breeding will help us to meet the challenge of feeding a growing world population