Synthetic Varieties: History, Development and Applications in Crop Improvement

Abstract

World population is increasing rapidly from time to time. Scientists expected to fulfill the demand of food by the highly increasing population of the era. So, one method of improvement to increase the yield is including synthetic varieties in the agriculture sector. Synthetics and the specialized populations derived from them-known synthetic varieties which are considered completely equivalent to synthetic cultivars are common products of plant breeding activities in a wide array of cross-pollinated species. A synthetic variety is developed through intercrossing of several genotypes of known superior combining ability. In order to use the synthetic varieties in breeding methods there should be clear information on their history, selection method, development, application, source and created population from them. So this paper is reviewed the history, development and applications of synthetic varieties in crop improvements.

Keywords: Combining ability, cross pollinated, population, synthetic varieties