Methods of Development of Biparental Mapping Populations in Horticultural Crops.

Biparental mapping populations consist of a set of individuals derived from crosses between two parents often belonging to diverse species of a botanical genus and differing in terms of phenotype and traits to share. The development of such recombinant libraries represents a powerful strategy for dissection of the genetic basis of complex traits in crops and these are largely utilized to develop pre-breeding sources to use in crop improvement. This chapter provides an overview of methods and strategies to follow, for the construction of different types of populations, from a plant breeder point of view. Starting from the initial crossing between founder lines toward the further selection steps, here are described the populations commonly established in autogamous species including F2, double haploids, backcrosses and recombinant inbreds, and introgression lines.