Modernization in plant breeding approaches for improving biotic stress resistance in crop plants

Authors: BABAR HUSSAIN

Abstract: Biotic stresses are a potential threat to global food security. The origin of new pathogens and insect races due to climatic andgenetic factors is a major challenge for plant breeders in breeding biotic stress resistant crops. Yield losses due to biotic stresses haveresulted in 800 million people underfed in the world. Reduced yield due to biotic stresses and increasing food demand put internationalfood security at risk as 70% more food will be required in 2050. This review describes and compares the conventional and moleculargenetics methods being used for breeding biotic stress resistant crops. In the past, classical breeding approaches like introduction,hybridization, composite crossing, multiline, and backcross breeding were utilized for this purpose. However, these methods wereslow, expensive, and hectic for developing resistance in crops. Furthermore, breakdown of resistance due to fast evolving pathogenscould not be coped with using these time consuming methods. Therefore, molecular genetics approaches like mutation, marker assistedselection (MAS), genomics, recombinant DNA technology, targeted induced local lesions in genome (TILLING), and virus inducedgene silencing (VIGS) were adapted by breeders to develop effective resistance in crop plants in a shorter time. TILLING, being anontransgenic method, is expected to become the most powerful tool for this purpose.

Keywords: Gene pyramiding, MAS, QTLs, TILLING, transgenic, VIGS

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