ABSTRACT
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important food crop in the tropics and subtropics. Traditionally, hybridization has been used to breed new cassava varieties (Nassar and Oritz, 2010). Changes in global climate, food security and industrialization have accelerated the breeding of new cassava varieties with increased nutrition, high stress resistance and starch content (Ceballos et al., 2012). Genetic engineering shows great potential in germplasm innovation by improving specific traits without changes in other important traits, especially with the development of genome editing technology. The ‘-omics’ tools have led to intensive cassava study focused especially on starchy storage root development, starch accumulation, health-promoting components (e.g. beta-carotene), and stress response and regulation (Sayre et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2011). In this chapter, we update the recent progress related to transgenic modification of cassava (Liu et al., 2011). As a vital component of an integrated breeding system, genetic engineering, together with functional genomics, proteomics, marker-assisted selection and traditional hybridization, has greatly promoted
the efficiency of cassava genetic improvement over the last 15 years. Hence, the role of cassava in food security, commercialization and bioenergy development can be addressed by strengthening fundamental research and applied technology.
