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Volume 12, Issue 2, July 2019 ISSN 1791-3691 Hellenic Plant Protection Journal A semiannual scientifi c publication of the BENAKIBEE PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL INSTITUTE EDITORIAL POLICY The Hellenic Plant Protection Journal (HPPJ) (ISSN 1791-3691) is the scientifi c publication of the Benaki Phytopathological Institute (BPI) replacing the Annals of the Benaki Phytopathological Insti- tute (ISSN 1790-1480) which had been published since 1935. Starting from January 2008, the Hel- lenic Plant Protection Journal is published semiannually, in January and July each year. HPPJ publishes scientifi c work on all aspects of plant health and plant protection referring to plant pathogens, pests, weeds, pesticides and relevant environmental and safety issues. In addition, the topics of the journal extend to aspects related to pests of public health in agricultural and urban areas. Papers submitted for publication can be either in the form of a complete research article or in the form of a suffi ciently documented short communication (including new records). Only origi- nal articles which have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere are considered for publication in the journal. Review articles in related topics, either submitted or invited by the Editorial Board, are also published, normally one article per issue. Upon publication all articles are copyrighted by the BPI. Manuscripts should be prepared according to instructions available to authors and submitted in electronic form on line at http://www.hppj.gr. All submitted manuscripts are considered and pub- Hellenic Plant Protection Journal Hellenic Plant lished after successful completion of a review procedure by two competent referees. The content of the articles published in HPPJ refl ects the view and the offi cial position of the au- thors. The information and opinions contained herein have not been adopted or approved by the HPPJ Editorial Board. The HPPJ Editorial Board neither guarantees the accuracy of the information included in the published articles nor may be held responsible for the use to which information contained herein may be put. For all parties involved in the act of publishing (the author(s), the journal editor(s), the peer review- ers, and the publisher) it is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. HPPJ follows the ethics statements of De Gruyter journals, which are based on the Committee on Publi- cation Ethics (COPE) Code of Conduct guidelines available at www.publicationethics.org. EDITORIAL BOARD Editor: Dr F. Karamaouna (Pesticides Control & Phytopharmacy Department, BPI) Associate Editors: Dr A.N. Michaelakis (Entomology & Agric. Zoology Department, BPI) Dr K.M. Kasiotis (Pesticides Control & Phytopharmacy Department, BPI) Dr I. Vloutoglou (Phytopathology Department, BPI) Editorial Offi ce: M. Kitsiou (Library Department, BPI) A. Karadima (Information Technology Service, BPI) For back issues, exchange agreements and other publications of the Institute contact the Li- brary, Benaki Phytopathological Institute, 8 St. Delta Str., GR-145 61 Kifi ssia, Attica, Greece, e-mail: [email protected]. This Journal is indexed by: AGRICOLA, CAB Abstracts-Plant Protection Database, INIST (Institute for Scientifi c and Technical Information) and SCOPUS. The olive tree of Plato in Athens is the emblem of the Benaki Phytopathological Institute Hellenic Plant Protection Journal also available at www.hppj.gr © Benaki Phytopathological Institute Hellenic Plant Protection Journal 12: 39-60, 2019 DOI 10.2478/hppj-2019-0006 REVIEW ARTICLE Molecular advances on agricultural crop improvement to meet current cultivating demands T. Margaritopoulou1,* and D. Milioni2 Abstract Sunfl ower, maize and potato are among the world’s principal crops. In order to improve various traits, these crops have been genetically engineered to a great extent. Even though molecu- lar markers for simple traits such as, fertility, herbicide tolerance or specifi c pathogen resistance have been successfully used in marker-assisted breeding programs for years, agronomical important com- plex quantitative traits like yield, biotic and abiotic stress resistance and seed quality content are chal- lenging and require whole genome approaches. Collections of genetic resources for these crops are conserved worldwide and represent valuable resources to study complex traits. Nowadays techno- logical advances and the availability of genome sequence have made novel approaches on the whole genome level possible. Molecular breeding, including both transgenic approach and marker-assisted breeding have facilitated the production of large amounts of markers for high density maps and al- lowed genome-wide association studies and genomic selection in sunfl ower, maize and potato. Mark- er-assisted selection related to hybrid performance has shown that genomic selection is a successful approach to address complex quantitative traits and to facilitate speeding up breeding programs in these crops in the future. Additional keywords: Crop improvement, agricultural biotechnology, marker assisted selection, improved ag- ronomic traits Introduction ing, are more genetically uniform than their wild relatives (Fu, 2015). Given that plant ge- Agriculture is a human invention since more netic diversity increases options for innova- than 10,000 years and is estimated to have tive, plant-based solutions to major environ- used more than 7,000 species to satisfy ba- mental challenges such as water scarcity, sic human needs (Esquinas-Alcázar, 2005). deforestation, energy and climate change, The primitive crop cultivars, known as lan- molecular plant breeding can be a valuable draces, were adapted to local growing con- tool to meet these demands by rapid incor- ditions and practices, and therefore re- poration of important traits from wild rela- mained genetically diverse for traits such tives into established crops and by shorten- as product qualities, stress tolerance, dis- ing new crop domestication time (da Silva ease resistance, and yield stability. Today’s Dias, 2015). agricultural commodities and modern vari- Nowadays aff ordable high throughput eties derived from the genetic modifi cation DNA sequencing, coupled with improved bio- of wild plants through thousands of years of informatics and statistical analyses, is bring- gradual selection, domestication and breed- ing major advances in the fi eld of molecular plant breeding. Multidisciplinary breeding programs on the world’s major crop plants 1 Benaki Phytopathological Institute, Department of are able to investigate genome-wide varia- Phytopathology, Laboratory of Mycology, St. Delta 8, GR-145 61 Kifi sia, Attica, Greece. tions in DNA sequences and link them to in- 2 Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Bi- herited highly complex traits which are con- otechnology, Iera Odos 75, GR-118 55 Votanikos, Ath- ens, Greece. trolled by several genes, such as hybrid vigor * Corresponding author: [email protected] and fl owering. Furthermore, there has been © Benaki Phytopathological Institute 40 Margaritopoulou & Milioni a step-change in speed and cost-eff ective- ment program. Assessing genetic diversi- ness (Robinson et al., 2014). The availabili- ty within a genetic pool of novel breeding ty of dense genetic maps can facilitate re- germplasm could make crop improvement searchers to perform flexible marker-trait more effi cient by the directed accumulation associations, concerning the correlations of desired alleles (Darvishzadeh et al., 2010). between pathogen resistance and alterna- Several bacterial artifi cial chromosome tive genes, and develop high performance (BAC) libraries have been constructed for markers that will promote marker- assisted sunfl ower (Feng et al., 2006; Gentzbittel et choice (MAS) selection for resistant popu- al., 2002; Özdemir et al., 2004). The libraries lations in segregating breeding programs are equivalent to approximately 8 haploid (Ben-Ari and Lavi, 2012). genomes of sunfl ower and provide a great- Herein, the molecular advances on agri- er than 99% probability of obtaining a clone cultural crop improvement to meet current of interest and they have been employed for cultivating demands are reviewed for three isolating and physical mapping of loci such economically important crops worldwide, as the FAD2-1 locus (Schuppert et al., 2006) i.e. sunfl ower, maize, potato. or the fertility restorer Rf1 locus (Hamrit et al., 2008). In situ hybridization techniques Sunfl ower (Helianthus annuus L., involving Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization Asteraceae) (FISH) and BAC-FISH have being optimized Sunfl ower is the foremost seed crop cul- for diversity and biological process studies tivated within the world (Fernández-Luque- between species of the genus Helianthus ño et al., 2014). Sunfl ower oil contains less and development of a physical helianthus than 11% total saturated fat and does not map allowing a cross reference to the ge- contain any trans fat. Inexpensive produc- netic map (Giordani et al., 2014). tion of biofuel from sunfl ower oil has been Various EST sequencing programs have achieved (Boumesbah et al., 2015). Further- been carried out in sunfl ower, including more, sunfl ower is an ideal plant for produc- the Compositae Genome Project, and oth- ing high quality rubber from its leaves and er programs (Tamborindeguy et al., 2004) stems and some of the taller perennial spe- and (Ben et al., 2005). The Compositae Ge- cies have high latex yield potential (Lu and nome Program (http://compgenomics.uc- Hoeft,