An Update on Radish Breeding Strategies: An Overview

In tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates, radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is a popular root vegetable. Radish diversity is intense from the eastern Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea. Many radish varieties have varied leaf morphology, root color, size, shape, flavor, vernalization requirements, and maturity times. Early radish variants were long and tapered rather than cylindrical, bulbous, elliptic, or spherical. For black Spanish radish, European-cultivated variety, and Asian-cultivated radish, three separate domestication processes occurred. The original radishes were black, followed by white in the 1500s then red and round in the 1700s. These are R. sativus L. var. radicula (sativus) or R. sativus L. var. niger radishes. Because of protogyny, self-incompatibility, open architecture, and biennial bolting, radish crosses readily. The fundamental methods for using heterotic breeding potential are SI, CMS, and doubled haploids (DH). This chapter discusses the various breeding strategies like inbred line development by the use of self-incompatibility, hybrid development by using male sterility system, population improvement, mutation breeding, haploid breeding, breeding strategies for biotic and abiotic stresses, QTL mapping, and genome wide and genomic tool in radish. Rapid developments in our understanding of advanced biotechnology technologies will increase our ability to identify cultivars and parental lines, check seed genetic purity, analyze phylogenetic links and genetic diversity, and add specific transgenic traits