Olive breeding aims to the adoption of a fast-track breeding methodology to rapidly identify and select ortets within the available gene pool or in progenies from planned mating design for the development of new varieties that meet the current objectives of the olive industry. Basic information is needed on the breeding objectives, the genetic basis of the desired traits, the selection criteria to be adopted, and the genetic diversity available for trait enhancement and new varieties needed by the current and future olive farmers. The available genetic diversity is not yet well organized according to the gene pool concept that greatly facilitates the choice of breeding materials and breeding procedure to adopt. In addition, despite recent significant efforts, the progress of knowledge on single-locus traits and QTLs is still limited, placing the efficiency of olive breeding at a crossroad. To overcome this important limiting factor, the current selection activities could be merged with the biotechnological advancements to formulate a faster trait-enhancement procedure based on cloning and genotyping of immature embryos from planned mating designs. Developments in DNA sequencing will now allow a cost-efficient increase of genomic resources for driving the rapid acquisition of information on genes for important economical and agronomical olive traits. The in vitro germination of immature zygotic embryos, zygotic embryo cloning, and application of modern genomic resources will set the stage for an accelerated olive breeding procedure.

The gene diversity for rust and powdery mildew disease resistance is very narrow in durum wheat varieties. The chromosome 6V#4 from D. villosum contains genes for broad-spectrum resistance to diseases caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) (stem rust), Puccinia triticina Eriks. (Pt) (leaf rust), Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici Er ks. (Pst) (stripe rust), and Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt) (powdery mildew). Progenies from the cross of a durum wheat F7 line (derived from ‘Cappelli’ × ‘Peleo’) with CS-DA6V#4 (a disomic addition line of chromosome 6V#4 to the T. aestivum ‘Chinese Spring’ genomic background), were backcrossed to durum wheat lines in order to selected plants for resistance to airborne Bgt inoculum in the greenhouse as a marker for the presence of chromosme 6V#4. The chromosome number of the progenies of two of those plants, ‘46768.1’ and ‘491-50.2’, ranged from 28 to 36 with an average of 2n=31, and the presence of 6V#4 was revealed by GISH. The seedlings of the two progenies were tested for response to different races (isolates) of Pgt and Pt under controlled experiments at CAR-HAS in Hungary, and to Pgt and Bgt under controlled experiments at CRA-QCE in Italy. All the seedlings from the ‘467-68.1’ and ‘491-50.2’ progenies, were resistant to Pt and Bgt, and the ‘467-68.1’ progeny displayed resistance to Pgt. The NAU/Xibao15902 molecular marker linked to Pm21, a putative locus in 6V#4 with a gene determining resistance to Bgt, was detected in all the seedlings of the two progenies. Plants with chromosome number ranging from 28 to 30 are now ield tested and are being prepared for the inal round of backcross to the ‘4.5.1’ durum wheat recurrent parent.

Climate change affects agricultural productivity worldwide. Increased prices of food commodities are the initial indication of drastic edible yield loss, which is expected to increase further due to global warming. This situation has compelled plant scientists to develop climate change-resilient crops, which can withstand broad-spectrum stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, flood, submergence and pests, thus helping to deliver increased productivity. Genomics appears to be a promising tool for deciphering the stress responsiveness of crop species with adaptation traits or in wild relatives toward identifying underlying genes, alleles or quantitative trait loci. Molecular breeding approaches have proven helpful in enhancing the stress adaptation of crop plants, and recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and phenotyping platforms have transformed molecular breeding to genomics-assisted breeding (GAB). In view of this, the present review elaborates the progress and prospects of GAB for improving climate change resilience in crops, which is likely to play an ever increasing role in the effort to ensure global food security.

SummaryAgriculture is now facing the ‘perfect storm’ of climate change, increasing costs of fertilizer and rising food demands from a larger and wealthier human population. These factors point to a global food deficit unless the efficiency and resilience of crop production is increased. The intensification of agriculture has focused on improving production under optimized conditions, with significant agronomic inputs. Furthermore, the intensive cultivation of a limited number of crops has drastically narrowed the number of plant species humans rely on. A new agricultural paradigm is required, reducing dependence on high inputs and increasing crop diversity, yield stability and environmental resilience. Genomics offers unprecedented opportunities to increase crop yield, quality and stability of production through advanced breeding strategies, enhancing the resilience of major crops to climate variability, and increasing the productivity and range of minor crops to diversify the food supply. Here we review the state of the art of genomic‐assisted breeding for the most important staples that feed the world, and how to use and adapt such genomic tools to accelerate development of both major and minor crops with desired traits that enhance adaptation to, or mitigate the effects of climate change.

Deploying whole and dissected nuclear genome of wild Triticeae species in the homoeologous wheat genetic background through inter-specific hybridization and introgression is a lower cost and effective option to prepare wheat germplasm with unexploited genes for disease resistance and enhanced grain yield and quality traits. The whole nuclear genomes of Dasypyrum villosum (Dv) and T. turgidum var durum have been combined, and an homoploid derivative of the original amphiploid displayed typical ‘farro’ spike morphology, tough rachis and the adaptive traits of Dv such as high resistance to diseases (caused by Tilletia tritici, Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, Puccinia triticina and P. graminis f. sp. tritici), heading earliness and fortified caryopses (high protein and micronutrient contents). The dissection of the Dv genome by either ‘Triticum aestivum cv Chinese Spring (CS) × hexaploid amphiploid’ or ‘(CS × Dv) × CS’ hybridization and backcrossing provided wheat introgression breeding lines (IBLs) expressing one or more of the Dv adaptive traits. Molecular analyses revealed that either cryptic or Genomic In-situ Hybridization (GISH) detectable Dv chromatin introgression occurred in those IBLs. The IBLs, after 2 years of low-input field tests and genetic analyses in Italy and Hungary, showed simple inheritance, dominance and stability of the adaptive and disease resistance traits.

Most wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding programs rely on gene transfer from the wild and cultivated secondary gene pool (GP‐2) for trait enhancement, but none has been successful in improving end‐use grain quality using gene transfer from the wild GP‐2. In this paper, the efficacy of prolamin subunits encoded by genes of Dasypyrum villosum (L.) Candargy (Dv) for the improvement of wheat end‐use grain quality has been assessed by small‐ and large‐scale analyses on wheat introgression lines (ILs) derived from Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring × Dv hybridization. Prolamin genes from Dv and wheat are coexpressed in the ILs and differentially affect bread‐making quality. The ascertained effects correlate weakly with the size of the introgressed Dv chromatin and are not confounded by the cryptic variation of the genetic background. Dasypyrum villosum chromatin, including genes at the Glu‐V1 locus, significantly improves wheat bread‐making quality, and chromatin from the short arm of chromosome 6V also improves protein and micronutrient content. These positive effects allow breeders to consider Dv as an important source of genes for grain quality improvement in wheat, also in conjunction with the introgression of Dv chromatin into wheat for enhancing expression of other traits such as disease resistance.

Variation in Italian germplasm of Phaseolus coccineus L. was assessed for seed traits and molecular markers. A total of 130 seeds and seedlings, five for each of 21 Italian landraces, an Italian commercial cultivar and four Mesoamerican landraces of P. coccineus, were analysed using seven selected PCR markers: three RAPDs, two ISSRs and two ETs. Seed weight of the Mesoamerican landraces was ≤1 g, whereas that of the Italian landraces varied from 1 g to 2.5 g and was related to their origin. Oval shape was more frequent, with round shape observed only in Mesoamerican landraces. Three seed coat colours were observed: white, violet mottled or spotted black and buff spotted brown, also this trait was related to the origin. The level of polymorphism detected by molecular markers was low but with significant discriminant power. ISSRs were the most effective markers prone to unravel molecular polymorphism. The within accession component of variation exceeded that among accessions, as expected for an allogamous species. However correct classification of the individuals was achieved performing either discriminant analysis of the seed phenotypic traits or cluster analysis of seedling similarity measure based on the whole banding patterns obtained by the three marker types. Our data suggest that the Italian farmers, starting with ancestral Mesoamerican runner bean introductions in Europe, bred their own landraces through selection for seed size and seed coat colour, but occasional gene flow maintained variability within landraces bred by different farmers in the same Italian Region. Selection favored molecular and seed trait uniformity within several landraces making them suitable for certification.