New Technologies and the Use of Genetic Resources: A New Future or Redundant?.

There is increasing focus on the improvement of specific traits in the field of plant breeding. Given the increasing and cost effective availability of sequence data some might argue that conserved genetic resources are no longer as useful as they once were for the improvement of crop performance. Indeed, in some crops (e.g. maize) the use of exotic germplasm in widely used US hybrids has proven over the past several decades to be difficult due to needs to adapt, evaluate, and introgress useful germplasm whilst not harming already proven agronomic performance. Some might argue that new technologies allow new potentially useful alleles to be made at will and readily inserted into the most elite inbred lines rendering obsolete the use of exotic germplasm per se in breeding populations. What does, or should the future look like with regard to the conservation and use of a broader base of plant genetic resources? Responses by several maize breeders covering both the public and private sectors to a questionairre on the use of maize genetic resources will be presented.