Adaptation in Plant Breeding

Plant adaptation has been seen as a fundamental process in plant breeding. Adaptedness is generally a quantitative complex feature of the plant, involving many traits, many of which are quantitative. Modern plant breeding, based on mendelian genetics, has made plant improvement more effective and more precise and selective. Molecular genetics and genetic engineering has considerably increased this selectivity down to single genes affecting single traits. In these proceedings an effort is made to merge modern plant breeding efficiency with ecological aspects of plant breeding, reflected in adaptation. It is hoped that this merger results in more sustainable use of genetic resources and physical environments. This volume is based on ten keynotes addressing a wide spectrum of themes related to adaptation. Each subject is further elaborated in up to three case studies on particular plant species or groups of plants. The keynotes overlap to some degree and there are articles in this volume that seemingly contradict each other, a common aspect in advanced fields of research. The keen reader may conclude that, in a world where climates and environments are under continuous change and where human society is more and more polarized into a developed and a developing part, adaptation of our cultivated plants has different constraints on yields depending on ecology, and indeed economy.