Section I: Overview and Biological Foundations
1. Horticultural Crop Breeding: An Overview
2. Plant Biotechnology: An Introduction
3. Classical and Quantitative Genetic Basis
4. Molecular Genetic Basis I: Markers, QTL Mapping and Marker-Assisted Selection
5. Molecular Genetic Basis II: Association Mapping
6. Mode of Reproduction in Relation to Horticultural Crop Breeding
7. Pollination Control Mechanism
Section II: Breeding Principles
8. Plant Domestication: Bringing Plants under Cultivation
9. Plant Genetic Resources: Collection, Conservation and Utilization
10. Variation: Types and Estimation
11. Genetic Components of Polygenic Variation and Breeding Strategies
12. Selection: Basis of Crop Breeding
13. Heterosis and Inbreeding Depression
14. Hybridization: Techniques and Consequences
15. Timelines in Conventional Crop Improvement: Pre-Breeding and Breeding Procedures
Section III: Breeding Practices
Part A: Conventional Breeding Practices
16. Plant Introduction and Acclimatization: Sexually and Asexually Propagated Crops
17. Methods of Selection: Heterogeneous, Homozygous Self-Pollinated Populations
18. Methods of Selection: Segregating, Self-Pollinated Populations
19. Methods of Selection: Cross-Pollinated Populations
20. Heterosis Breeding: Development of Hybrid Cultivars
21. Selection and Hybridization in Asexually Propagated Crops
Part B: Non-Conventional Breeding Practices
22. Mutation Breeding: Sexually and Asexually Propagated Crops
23. Polyploidy Breeding: Manipulating Chromosomes
24. Wide (Distant) Hybridization and Introgressive Breeding
25. Marker Assisted Selection: Assisting Conventional Methods
26. In-Vitro Breeding: Crop Improvement Through Tissue Culture
27. Transgenic Breeding: Crop Improvement Through Genetic Engineering
Part C: Mission-Oriented Breeding Practices
28. Breeding for Resistance to Biotic Stresses
29. Breeding for Resistance to Abiotic Stresses