In Memory of the 200th Anniversary of Gregor Mendel: Genetics and the Father of Genetics

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 October 2023) | Viewed by 2939

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Cultural Heritage Sciences, Tuscia University, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: plant biology; plant genetics; plant breeding; plant molecular biology; molecular markers; agricultural biotechnology; crop improvement; molecular plant breeding; molecular breeding; plant phenotyping
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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, Tuscia University, Via S. C. de Lellis, snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: plant population genetics; plant evolution and domestication; in situ and ex situ conservation of plant germplasm; molecular characterization; molecular markers; molecular evolution; plant breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Gregor Mendel is known as the father of genetics. Through experiments on pea plants grown in his monastery, he elucidated the transmission mechanisms of heredity, explaining how some characteristics of the parents are transmitted to the next generation, thus, laying down the foundations of genetics, a science that today has a central role in the sciences of life.

When he presented the results of his experiments in 1866, his ambition was perhaps lesser, as he tried to start from simple observations of similarities between parents and offspring to explaining which mechanisms could justify the fact that some of their traits were inherited from generation to generation. It took a long time to understand that the secret of the identity of living beings is written in molecules of DNA, and even more to understand how exactly these long strings of such a simple structure manage to determine what living organisms are.

In honour of the 200th anniversary of Gregor Mendel's birthday, we wish to organize this Special Issue, bringing together a selection of papers exemplifying how Mendel’s findings remain relevant to this day, and showcase some of the advances and remaining challenges in genetics and evolutionary research.

Contributions in the form of novel research, reviews, and opinion articles covering all aspects of crop genetics and evolution are welcome. We believe that this Special Issue will be helpful in the research of crop genetics and the improvement of crop breeding in the future.

Prof. Dr. Enrico Porceddu
Dr. Mario A. Pagnotta
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • plant genetics
  • plant breeding
  • plant molecular biology
  • molecular markers
  • agricultural biotechnology
  • crop genetics
  • crop breeding
  • crop improvement
  • molecular plant breeding
  • molecular breeding
  • plant gene ecology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

23 pages, 2286 KiB  
Review
Lessons from the Varietal Evolution of Durum Wheat in Italy
by Martina Ludovica Careddu, Francesco Giunta and Rosella Motzo
Agronomy 2024, 14(1), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14010087 - 29 Dec 2023
Viewed by 2066
Abstract
The leading role of Italy in the cultivation of durum wheat stimulated intense breeding activities in the country from the beginning of the 20th century, much earlier than in any other country involved in durum wheat production. Older, genetically more heterogeneous landraces were [...] Read more.
The leading role of Italy in the cultivation of durum wheat stimulated intense breeding activities in the country from the beginning of the 20th century, much earlier than in any other country involved in durum wheat production. Older, genetically more heterogeneous landraces were replaced with new, highly productive, superior quality varieties, and this led to an inevitable reduction in the overall genetic diversity among new cultivars, which makes the genetic variability preserved in old cultivars particularly valuable and important. The aim of this paper was to assist future breeding programs by providing a detailed description of the history of durum wheat breeding in Italy and of the changes in yield, quality, and related traits that subsequently occurred, starting from the most diffuse landraces present between 1900 and 1920 up until the present day. The parallel evolution of breeding techniques, breeding goals, and agricultural systems in this period is also described, and some future breeding goals suggested. In the current context of climate change and of rapidly mutating pathogen populations, preserving the yield level through the continuous introduction of new cultivars by exploiting the reservoir of largely unused genetic variation stored in old cultivars and landraces could be as important as increasing grain yield and quality. Full article
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