Shaping the Sugar Beet of Tomorrow: Current Advances in Sugar Beet Biotechnology and New Breeding Techniques

Abstract

Sugar beet genome was first published in 2014. Before this, there were GMO cultivars of sugar beet commercially available. The possibility of genetic transformation, together with the complete characterization of the genome facilitates the use of molecular techniques as well as new breeding techniques for sugar beet improvement. Another important aspect is the fact that sugar beet is a recently domesticated crop, and there is a huge wild genetic diversity, which constitute a great genetic pool which can be used as a source of useful genes for introgressions or for designing new GMO crops. In this chapter, we will review all the knowledge available in GMO sugar beet, the recent advances and applications of biotechnology and novel breeding techniques in sugar beet improvement, and the use of sugar beet genes in other crops as well as the future prospects.