Abstract
The age of molecular cytogenetic analysis of crop plants dawned in the late 1960s and early 1970s with new advances in the identification of somatic chromosomes by C-banding and fluorescence in situ hybridization concurrent with advances in DNA cloning, sequencing, and mapping. In this perspective article dedicated to Ronald Phillips, I review the contributions of molecular cytogenetic research to chromosome biology and crop improvement. I argue that molecular cytogenetics and wide hybridization (intergeneric and interspecific hybridization followed by introgressive breeding) will continue to play a key role in developing climate-resilient crop germplasm. However, this will happen only if the lack of investment and retrenchment of faculty engaged in molecular cytogenetics is reversed across US land-grant universities.