Preface

Plant breeding is the targeted manipulation of sexual crosses of desired plant species/ cultivar to combine useful genotypic variations (genes) to express improved or novel traits beneficial for plants, bestowing them with a certain economic or food value.

Pre-hybridization stages involve selecting a plant genotype with desired trait phenotype(s) from natural genetic resources or germplasm collections as well as creating novel variations using traditional chemical or radiation mutagenesis and modern genetic engineering methods. The post-hybridization process involves conducting a series of controlled pollination involving selfing or backcross hybridization methods to fix desired traits of interest, followed by multiple stages of artificial selection for desired genotypes.

The chapters in *Plant Breeding - Current and Future Views* provide updated scientific views from leading international scientists on the latest advances in plant breeding, in particular, new crop development (e.g., high-density planting, breeding for quality of crop products, plant variety release and protection), breeding for stressful conditions (e.g., climate-resilient agriculture technologies, microbiome use, slat and temperature resistance, biotic stress tolerance), new tools for plant molecular breeding (tagging traits using molecular marker technologies and marker-assisted selection approaches), and crop biotechnology (transgenetic and genome editing technologies).

I am confident this book will enhance readers' understanding and knowledge of this important subject in the era of technological advance and global climate change that heavily influences global agricultural production.

I thank the editors and publishing managers at IntechOpen as well as all the contributing authors for their help, support, and patience throughout the process of creating and publishing this book.

> **Ibrokhim Y. Abdurakhmonov** Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Section 1
