Principles of Plant Breeding (2+1)

Gene pyramiding

Gene pyramiding:

1. Pyramiding of genes has been suggested as an effective way to provide durable form of disease and insect resistance in crop plants. Because of difficulty involved and number of years it requires, development of lines carrying genes for resistance against several races of a single pathogen/insect or different biotic stresses has not been very successful.
2. Recently successful pyramiding of four genes, Xa4, Xa5, Xa13 and Xa21 conferring resistance to four different races of bacterial blight has been achieved in rice by using molecular markers.