Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students pursuing courses in applied genetics and plant breeding, but particularly at practising plant breeders, this book assumes only a basic knowledge of genetics and statistics. It expressly seeks to examine and explain quantitative and ecological aspects of plant breeding from a practical point-of-view, using data taken whenever possible from actual breeding trials to illustrate the analytical techniques described. The text is divided into eight chapters, of which the first is a historical introduction to the subject. Topics covered in the remaining chapters include the fitting of genetic models to means and variances and their role in prediction; experimental mating designs and their use in breeding programmes; selection with and without competition; the problems posed by, and the analysis of, genotype-environment interactions in multi-environment trials; stability, adaptability and adaptation; genetic resources and diversity, and ecogeographical breeding; breeding for biotic and abiotic stress. This book should be of interest to plant scientists, agricultural scientists, plant breeders and geneticists.
