Abstract
Wheat (Triticum spp. L; Gramineae), a self-pollinating crop, is one of the most important cereal crops. Globally, wheat is an economic crop, utilized as food, feed, seed and industrial uses. Gene banks have conserved a large genetic resource collection of wheat germplasm including wild Triticum species. There are numerous species of Triticum with different genomes and chromosome numbers. Triticum harbors significant diversity based on ploidy level, biological status, geographical regions and morpho-agronomic traits. Introgression of novel alleles through crossing between various wheat genetic resources, e.g. modern varieties with locally-adapted varieties, enhances genetic diversity and preselection for traits of interest, which is required to ensure meaningful natural variation at the phenotype level. Improving wheat for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance traits, quality traits and yield attributes are the main objectives of wheat breeders and geneticists. Achieving these objectives can be facilitated by the application the modern genomics tools to augment traditional breeding programs. This chapter presents an overview of wheat germplasm biodiversity and conservation, objectives and stages of wheat breeding programs, cultivation and traditional breeding methods, in addition to modern plant breeding tools including marker-assisted breeding, genetic engineering and genome editing.