Addressing Research Bottlenecks to Crop Productivity

Reynolds, M. and Atkin, O.K. and Bennett, M. and Cooper, M. and Dodd, I.C. and Foulkes, M.J. and Frohberg, C. and Hammer, G. and Henderson, I.R. and Huang, B. and Korzun, V. and McCouch, S.R. and Messina, C.D. and Pogson, B.J. and Slafer, G.A. and Taylor, N.L. and Wittich, P.E. (2021) Addressing Research Bottlenecks to Crop Productivity. Trends in Plant Science, 26 (6). pp. 607-630. ISSN 1360-1385

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Abstract

Asymmetry of investment in crop research leads to knowledge gaps and lost opportunities to accelerate genetic gain through identifying new sources and combinations of traits and alleles. On the basis of consultation with scientists from most major seed companies, we identified several research areas with three common features: (i) relatively underrepresented in the literature; (ii) high probability of boosting productivity in a wide range of crops and environments; and (iii) could be researched in ‘precompetitive’ space, leveraging previous knowledge, and thereby improving models that guide crop breeding and management decisions. Areas identified included research into hormones, recombination, respiration, roots, and source–sink, which, along with new opportunities in phenomics, genomics, and bioinformatics, make it more feasible to explore crop genetic resources and improve breeding strategies.