Towards transforming cassava breeding: harnessing inbred-parent-based hybrid breeding strategies.

This perspective article introduces an innovative transformation in cassava breeding by implementing inbred-parent-based hybrid breeding, as opposed to conventional heterozygous-parent-based recurrent selection. It highlights the genomic, physiological, and technological foundations enabling this shift — self-compatibility in cassava, flower-induction technologies, doubled haploids, genomic selection, and global collaboration frameworks. The approach aims to purge deleterious mutations, accelerate trait introgression through backcrossing, enhance selection precision, and systematically exploit heterosis to produce resilient, high-performing hybrid varieties. The authors identify four key priority areas — understanding inbreeding depression, developing inbred or DH parents, purging genetic load, and creating heterotic pools — to achieve faster, cost-effective cassava improvement contributing to food security and climate adaptation.