Zhongmei Hong , Wenzhong Huang

CRO Service Station, Sanya Tihitar SciTech Breeding Service Inc., Sanya, 572025, China
Author    Correspondence author
Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, 2024, Vol. 14, No. 1   
Received: 07 Jan., 2024    Accepted: 08 Feb., 2024    Published: 19 Feb., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a key food and industrial crop in the global tropics, valued for its high adaptability to marginal soil conditions and the starch-rich nature of its roots. As the global population continues to grow and climate change becomes more severe, the scientific community is seeking to address the challenges of food security and agricultural sustainability by improving cassava production and processing quality. This paper reviews the research progress of cassava agronomic traits and genetic basis in recent years, with special attention paid to the mining of genetic diversity, improvement of agronomic traits and application of modern biotechnology in cassava breeding. Studies have shown that the combination of traditional selective breeding, molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS), gene editing and other technologies has greatly improved the cassava root yield and starch quality. In addition, the implementation of precision agronomic technology and smart agriculture provides new possibilities for optimizing cassava production management and improving its environmental adaptability. The paper also discusses the direction of future cassava research, including further development of genetic resources, improving cassava's resilience to environmental changes and its role in the global food system.

Cassava; Agronomic traits; Genetic basis; Biotechnology; Yield and quality improvement