Role of Mutation Breeding in Crop Improvement- Past, Present and Future

With the inevitable risk posed by global climate change to crop yield and ever increasing demands of agricultural production, crop improvement techniques have to be more precise in developing smart crop varieties. This review reviews the past, current progress and assesses the future directions in mutation breeding for crop improvement. It provides a background to plant mutation breeding strategies, basic and advanced techniques, and provides a critical review of this approach in comparison to other methods for the genetic improvement of crops. Mutation breeding is a fundamental and highly successful tool in the global efforts of agriculture to feed an ever increasing and nutritionally demanding human population. The physical and chemical mutagens, their effects and their utility are discussed. The induction of mutations has been used to enhance the yield, better nutritional quality and wider adaptability of world’s most important crops such as wheat, rice, pulses, millets and oilseeds. The total area covered by commercially released mutant cultivars clearly indicates that they have played a significant role in solving food and nutritional security problems in many countries. Of all the mutant varieties developed, majority of mutants were produced through direct mutagenesis of the plant propagules, and also there are several reports of mutants derived by irradiating rooted stem cuttings, which paves the way for in vitro mutagenesis. The production of mutants by irradiation of in vitro cultured tissues provides a means to treat large populations which would not have been possible before. The accessibility of genomics information in the public domain combined with the recent advances in molecular biology techniques have paved the way for transforming old mutation techniques into the state of art technology for crop improvement and basic genomic research. The molecular tagging and molecular marker based identification shall bring new dimensions in gene technology. These would finally lead to rapid enhancement of crops with improved yield, increased biotic and abiotic stress and reduced agronomic inputs. Thus mutation assisted plant breeding will play a crucial role in the generation of designer crop varieties to address the threats of global climate change and challenges of world food insecurity.