A French cooperative programme for management and utilization of maize genetic resources.
Un programme coopératif français pour la gestion et l'utilisation des ressources génétiques du maïs.
Résumé
This comprehensive genetic resource conservation and utilization programme depended upon the long-term cooperation between French public and private breeders. The important results included: the collection of a large number of populations of maize and their evaluation for agronomic molecular traits; the development of a restricted number of broad-based genetic pools, which facilitates the management and use of broad diversity; the improvement of some pools to stimulate their use and to broaden the genetic base of material used by breeders. The programme was also very informative concerning the methodology for the management and use of genetic resources. It was possible to classify the populations into groups, and to develop 'pools' useful for the breeders with the use of different types of data. RFLPs appeared to have a greater potential value than isoenzymes for the classification into groups and the prediction of within population variability for quantitative traits. The strategy that was used to prepare new material useful in the relatively short term for the plant breeder, i.e. development of pools after low selection intensity between populations and introgressing these pools by elite material seemed very efficient. However, it was clear that to make the maximum use of the genetic variability of such promising pools, several cycles of recurrent selection are necessary.