Molecular marker‐facilitated pyramiding of different genes for powdery mildew resistance in wheat

Breeding durable resistance to pathogens and pests is a major task for modern plant breeders and pyramiding different resistance genes into a genotype is one way of achieving this. Three powdery mildew resistance gene combinations, Pm2+Pm4a, Pm2+Pm21, Pm4a+Pm21 were successfully integrated into an elite wheat cultivar ‘Yang047′. Double homozygotes were selected from a small F2 population with the help of molecular markers. As the parents were near-isogenic lines (NILs) of ‘Yang158′, the progenies showed good uniformity in morphological and other non-resistance agronomic traits. The present work illustrates the bright prospects for the utilization of molecular markers in breeding for host resistance.