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Plant breeding is the production of plants by selective mating or hybridization. It is the traditional mechanism for producing new varieties of plants for horticulture and agriculture.
High-quality genome assemblies of grain and vegetable cowpeas and re-sequencing of 344 accessions characterize genomic variations between cowpea subspecies and their domestication and improvement under selection.
Chromosome-level genome assemblies of allotetraploid Coffea arabica and representatives of its diploid progenitors, Coffeaeugenioides and Coffeacanephora, provide insights into Arabica’s diversification history.
Powdery mildew is a fungal leaf disease that reduces yield and grain quality in susceptible wheat varieties. Here, the authors report the cloning of the wild emmer wheat originated powdery mildew resistance gene Pm36 as a membrane associated tandem kinase and its possible resistance mechanism.
Drought is a serious threat to global food security. In upstream research, crop drought-tolerant traits are often studied under extreme drought conditions, which can seem irrelevant in the eyes of breeders.
Rhizosphere microbiomes are shaped by both the environment and the host. A recent study of the maize microbiome reveals how plants recruit a specific microbiome to alleviate abiotic stress, and provides clues for precision microbiome engineering in agriculture.
Two studies report the use of paternal haploids to enable one-step transfer of cytoplasmic male sterility in maize and broccoli, which resolves a key technical bottleneck in hybrid crop breeding.
Underutilised crops or orphan crops are important for diversifying our food systems towards food and nutrition security. Here, the authors discuss how the development of underutilised crop genomic resource should align with their breeding and capacity building strategies, and leverage advances made in major crops.