A Review for the Breeding of Orchids: Current Achievements and Prospects

ABSTRACT Orchids are horticultural plants with significant ornamental and economic value. Increasing market circulation and rising trade in orchids is forcing breeders to develop varieties with unique characteristics, including flower color, morphology, and resistance using a range of approaches, including traditional and molecular breeding. Advances in high-throughput technologies have generated extensive data sets with greater sequencing depths and broader coverage, providing the potential for discovering new genes/pathways that give rise to key traits. Several attempts have been made to use emerging molecular and omics methods to accelerate the breeding process in certain of the commercially valuable orchids. This review consolidates current approaches and achievements in orchid breeding and discusses their future applications for improving the resistance, ornamental, and other valuable characteristics of these plants.