Technology is driving the re-integration of plant and animal breeding to their mutual benefit

The world population is predicted to reach 9 billion within the next 35 years, requiring a 70-100% increase in food production relative to current levels. Breeding of livestock and crops is one of the key routes through which this increased production, efficiency and sustainability can be delivered. Although plant and animal breeding have similar objectives and have similar roots, the two fields, and their respective concepts and technology, have diverged over the past 100 or so years. The advent of genomic selection and other technology such as genome editing and surrogate sires is driving a reconnection between plant and animal breeding. Genomic selection, with its roots in animal breeding, has transformed that field and is well on the way to doing so in plant breeding. If genome editing is to be successful in animal breeding perhaps deeper physiological understanding, as is common in plant breeding, will need to be brought to the fore explicitly or implicitly. The statistical models, experimental designs, genotyping and phenotyping technologies, and many other underpinning tools, methods, and technologies can be common to both fields in the future and thus create the opportunity for synergy at the research, training and implementation stage. Finally, surrogate sire technology coupled with genomic selection may mean that an idealised blueprint for a modern animal or plant breeding program could be almost identical and will be inspired by the best of what classical and modern animal and plant breeding offer. Keywords: animal breeding, plant breeding, breeding program design, genomic selection, genome editing, surrogate sire