Leveraging the QTLome to enhance climate change resilience in cereals

Global food security relies on the release of cultivars more resilient to the negative effects of abiotic stress caused by climate change. Attaining this daunting goal will require a substantial increase in selection gain achieved so far with conventional breeding. To this end, the identification of molecular markers associated with major quantitative trait loci (QTL) for the adaptive response to abiotic stress enables marker-assisted selection, boosts gain from selection while promoting a better understanding of the functional basis of abiotic stress resilience. This chapter presents an update and partial synopsis of the vast literature on the dissection of the QTLome in cereals and how this information is being leveraged toward the release of climate-resilient cultivars. Among the literature available on the topic of this review, the authors have focused on both recent articles as well as a number of reviews thus providing a critical assessment and appreciation of the merits and shortcomings on the adoption of a QTL-centric approach.