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.