Final answer:
The major objectives of crop breeding programs include increasing yield, enhancing disease and pest resistance, and improving nutritional qualities. Corn, peanut, and strawberry breeding focus on specific traits such as drought resistance, oil content, and fruit robustness. Dihybrid crosses are used to understand the inheritance of traits, guiding effective breeding strategies.
Step-by-step explanation:
Objectives of Breeding Programs
The major objectives of crop breeding programs such as corn breeding, peanut breeding, and strawberry breeding often include goals like increasing yield, improving resistance to diseases and pests, and enhancing nutritional quality. In the case of corn, the evolution and domestication have been significant over 9,000 years, resulting in a dramatic transformation from its wild ancestors to the productive cultivars we have today. For peanuts, efforts might focus on developing new varieties that are more drought-resistant or have a higher oil content, important traits for agricultural productivity and value.
With strawberries, breeding programs aim to produce varieties that bear larger, sweeter, and more robust fruit that can withstand transport, giving an advantage in the market. A significant part of these programs is understanding genetic principles, such as those Mendelian and molecular genetics, which help guide cross-breeding and selection processes to enhance desirable traits. Moreover, the use of dihybrid crosses in breeding systems can elucidate the likely inheritance patterns among offspring, aiding in the prediction and selection of advantageous traits like plant height and pod shape.