Abstract
This chapter discusses trade-offs, which can represent either constraints or opportunities. The ideas presented are only a subset of the potential applications of evolutionary biology to the genetic improvement of crop plants. A better understanding of trade-offs is key to understanding past progress, remaining opportunities, and the ultimate limits to crop genetic improvement. The success of the Green Revolution depended on trade-offs between the competitiveness of individual plants against each other, which was favored by past natural selection and the collective seed yield of crops. Some trade-offs that shaped past evolution still act as constraints on further crop improvement. There appears to be a trade-off between specificity and reaction rate, with natural selection having balanced the two goals differently in terrestrial versus aquatic environments. A detailed mechanism for such a trade-off has been proposed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Crop Physiology |
| Subtitle of host publication | Applications for Genetic Improvement and Agronomy |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Pages | 214-234 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780123744319 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 15 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:I thank Will Ratcliff and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments. This material is partly based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0514464.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..