Summary
Plant populations are being exposed to unique combinations of temperatures, drought stress, [CO2], and other abiotic and biotic variables as a result of current climate change. As a result, climate change is expected to have a considerable influence on agriculture and food security, albeit the impact will vary by region and crop. When combined with the growing global population, agriculture must adapt quickly to ensure future food security for this growing population. Various adaptation strategies have been used, including altering food consumption and waste, changing land and cropping practices, producing improved crop varieties, and changing land and cropping practices. Moreover, recent advancements in genetics and agronomy may be able to help mitigate some of the negative effects of climate change on food production. Long-term genetic gain through conventional breeding has gradually enhanced modern crop yields by accumulating favorable, small-effect variations that also offer yield stability through stress adaptability. Furthermore, extensive research is being conducted to address this issue, with the goal of identifying exotic genetic diversity that exhibits pronounced stress tolerance or avoidance, elucidating and introgressing the responsible genetic factors, or discovering underlying genes as a foundation for targeted genetic modification.
Authors & affiliations
Assoc. Prof. Ventsislava Petrova
Educational goals
To present how climate change factors interact with each other and with biotic pressures to alter evolutionary processes;
To outline the breeding progress in major crops and highlight the impact of long-term, conventional breeding on climate adaptation and yield stability under abiotic stress constraints;
To describe how mating system variation influences population persistence under rapid environmental change;
To discuss how spatial and temporal mismatches between plants and their mutualists and antagonists could affect adaptive responses to climate change.
To support the educational concept and content with ppt, videos, and project work materials.
Keywords/phrases
climatic variability, ecological genomics, genetic gain, breeding progress