Principles of Plant Breeding (2+1)

Hybridization and Pedigree Method

Introduction
• Natural variability in self pollinatedpopulation is exhausted during selection, for further improvements new genetic variability has to be created by crossing two different pure lines. Hybridization means the mating or crossing of two plants or lines of dissimilar genotypes.
• The seeds as well as the progeny resulting from the hybridization are known as hybrid or F1. The progeny of F1 obtained by self or inter mating of F1 plants and the subsequent generations are called segregatinggenerations. Today hybridization is the most common method of crop improvement and the majority of the crops varities have originates from hybridization.
• One of the objectives of hybridization is to create genetic variation. Two genotypicallydifferent plants are crossed together to obtain F1 generation. F1 is advanced to generate F2generation. The degree of genetic variation in F2 and subsequent generation depend on number of heterozygous genes in F1.