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Review Article|01 Oct 2019|OPEN
Current achievements and future prospects in the genetic breeding of chrysanthemum: a review
Jiangshuo Su1 , Jiafu Jiang1 , Fei Zhang1 , Ye Liu1 , Lian Ding1 , Sumei Chen1 and Fadi Chen,1 ,
1State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Key Laboratory of Landscaping, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095 Nanjing, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: chenfd@njau.edu.cn

Horticulture Research 6,
Article number: 109 (2019)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-019-0193-8
Views: 1123

Received: 04 May 2019
Revised: 11 Aug 2019
Accepted: 14 Aug 2019
Published online: 01 Oct 2019

Abstract

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) is a leading flower with applied value worldwide. Developing new chrysanthemum cultivars with novel characteristics such as new flower colors and shapes, plant architectures, flowering times, postharvest quality, and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in a time- and cost-efficient manner is the ultimate goal for breeders. Various breeding strategies have been employed to improve the aforementioned traits, ranging from conventional techniques, including crossbreeding and mutation breeding, to a series of molecular breeding methods, including transgenic technology, genome editing, and marker-assisted selection (MAS). In addition, the recent extensive advances in high-throughput technologies, especially genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics, which are collectively referred to as omics platforms, have led to the collection of substantial amounts of data. Integration of these omics data with phenotypic information will enable the identification of genes/pathways responsible for important traits. Several attempts have been made to use emerging molecular and omics methods with the aim of accelerating the breeding of chrysanthemum. However, applying the findings of such studies to practical chrysanthemum breeding remains a considerable challenge, primarily due to the high heterozygosity and polyploidy of the species. This review summarizes the recent achievements in conventional and modern molecular breeding methods and emerging omics technologies and discusses their future applications for improving the agronomic and horticultural characteristics of chrysanthemum.