Plant breeding involves the development of new plant varieties that possess traits human beings consider desirable. Breeding improves the quantity and quality of crop production. Man's earliest influence on plant selection was haphazard. The very act of organizing plants into garden plots and fields brought them into close proximity with each other and natural breeding within and among crops took place. Similarities among plants were strengthened while differences were reduced, and new varieties were created naturally among genetically similar species.

The research of German botanist Rudolph Camerarius (1665-1721) in 1694 marked the first serious attempt to understand the sexual roles played by different parts of a flower and the relationship of insects and wind to the pollination process. Since then, humanity has learned to manipulate plant reproduction in significant ways. The research of Austrian botanist Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) during the 1860s on garden peas and other plants...