Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food of 800 million people in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Its industrial utilization for bioethanol, animal feed, and starch are still continuously expanding. It was not until the 1970s that significant scientific efforts were undertaken to improve cassava, despite its considerable economic and social significance. Shorten the breeding cycle and improve the breeding efficiency are always the focus of the cassava breeding study. In this review, we provide a global perspective on the current status of cassava germplasm resources and explore the diverse applications of cassava breeding methods from hybridization, polyploidy and inbreeding to genomic selection and gene editing. Additionally, we overview at least six nearly complete cassava genome sequences established based on modern genomic techniques. These achievements have substantially supported the advancing of gene discovery and breeding of new cassava varieties. Furthermore, we provide a summary of the advancements in cassava’s functional genomics, concentrating on important traits such as starch quality and content, dry matter content, tolerance to post-harvest physiological deterioration, nutritional quality, and stress resistance. We also provide a comprehensive summary of the milestone events and key advancements in cassava genetic improvement over the past 50 years. Finally, we put forward the perspective of developing genomic selection breeding model and super-hybrids of cassava through building inbreeding population and emphasize the generation of triploid cassavas, allowing cassava to be a tropical model plant serve for basic biological research and molecular breeding.

中文翻译：

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木薯遗传改良的进展和策略 （Manihot esculenta Crantz）：从常规方法到基因组方法


木薯 （Manihot esculenta Crantz） 是世界热带和亚热带地区 8 亿人的主食。它在生物乙醇、动物饲料和淀粉方面的工业利用仍在不断扩大。直到 1970 年代，人们才采取了重大的科学努力来改良木薯，尽管木薯具有相当大的经济和社会意义。缩短育种周期和提高育种效率一直是木薯育种研究的重点。在这篇综述中，我们提供了木薯种质资源现状的全球视角，并探讨了木薯育种方法从杂交、多倍体和近亲繁殖到基因组选择和基因编辑的多种应用。此外，我们概述了至少六个基于现代基因组技术建立的近乎完整的木薯基因组序列。这些成就极大地支持了木薯新品种的基因发现和育种的推进。此外，我们总结了木薯功能基因组学的进展，重点关注淀粉质量和含量、干物质含量、对收获后生理恶化的耐受性、营养质量和抗逆性等重要性状。我们还全面总结了过去 50 年木薯遗传改良的里程碑事件和关键进展。最后，提出了通过建立近交种群来发展木薯基因组选择育种模式和超级杂交种的观点，强调三倍体木薯的产生，使木薯成为一种热带模式植物，用于基础生物学研究和分子育种。