Proceedings of a symposium jointly organized by the IAEA and FAO, Vienna, 19–23 June 1995. The aim of the symposium was to review current aspects of mutation and molecular biology techniques for use in crop improvement and to bridge the gap between practical plant breeding and molecular techniques. Problems of crop improvement worldwide, and their possible solution, were discussed. It was concluded that use of all available approaches, including mutation and molecular biology techniques, will be crucial to future plant breeding programmes in order to meet the world’s food production challenges.
Contents: Opening Session; Plant breeding: Problems and current techniques; Seed quality; Apomixis and F1 hybrids; Plant pathology and disease resistance; Genome architecture, genome manipulation and comparative gene mapping; Methylation and gene expression; Molecular markers: Part 1: Application of DNA based marker mutations for improvement of cereals and other sexually reproduced crop species; Part 2: Use of novel DNA fingerprinting techniques for the detection and characterization of genetic variation in vegetatively propagated crops; Stress tolerance; Genetic transformation; Looking into the future: Looking into model plants; Biotechnology in developing countries; Current application of mutation techniques; Molecular markers and genetic transformation for crop improvement (poster session); Mutation techniques and biotechnology for crop improvement (poster session).