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Breeding for Disease Resistance

Authors:
Devendra Kumar at Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Devendra Kumar
Sajad Un Nabi at ICAR-Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture
Sajad Un Nabi
  • ICAR-Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture
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Abstract

Disease resistance is often defined as reduction of pathogen growth on or in the plant.It denotes less disease development in a genotype than that in the susceptible variety and is a relative attribute.Generally, the rate of reproduction is considerably reduced which limits the spread of disease. Plants are almost always resistant to certain pathogens but susceptible to other pathogens; resistance is usually pathogen species-specific or pathogen strain-specific.
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Agrobios News Letter, November 2015 Vol. XIV (06) 83-84
Breeding for Disease Resistance
Sajad unNabi and Devendra KumarChoudhary
PhD Scholars, Division of plant pathology IARI New Delhi 110012
Disease resistance is often defined as reduction
of pathogen growth on or in the plant.It denotes
less disease development in a genotype than that
in the susceptible variety and is a relative
attribute.Generally, the rate of reproduction is
considerably reduced which limits the spread of
disease. Plants are almost always resistant to
certain pathogens but susceptible to other
pathogens; resistance is usually pathogen
species-specific or pathogen strain-specific..
Types of disease resistance
Vertical resistance: Term coined by
Vanderplank.It is qualitative resistance or race
specific resistance governed by major genes and
is characterized by phenotype specificity it is
easily overcome by new races of the pathogen.
Common in diseases caused by biotrophic
pathogens e.g. rusts.
Horizontal resistance:Term coined by
Vanderplank Quantitative or durable resistance,
controlled by polygenes and is host
nonspecific.These genes provide the plants with
defensive structures or toxic substances that
slow down or stop the advance of the pathogen
into the host tissues and reduce the damage
caused by the pathogen, in diseases caused by
non-biotrophic pathogens.The defenses in
quantitative resistance develop slower and
perhaps reach a lower level than those in the
race specific resistance.It is durable resistance
and never breaks down to new strains of disease,
as does vertical resistance.
Plant breeders focus a significant part of their
effort on selection and development of disease-
resistant plant lines. Plant diseases can also be
partially controlled by use of pesticides, and by
cultivation practices such as crop rotation,
tillage, planting density, purchase of disease-free
seeds and cleaning of equipment, but plant
varieties with inherent (genetically determined)
disease resistance are generally the first choice
for disease control. Breeding for disease
resistance has been underway since plants were
first domesticated, but it requires continual
effort. This is because pathogen populations are
often under natural selection for increased
virulence, new pathogens can be introduced to
an area, cultivation methods can favor increased
disease incidence over time, changes in
cultivation practice can favor new diseases, and
plant breeding for other traits can disrupt the
disease resistance that was present in older plant
varieties. A plant line with acceptable disease
resistance against one pathogen may still lack
resistance against other pathogens
Steps in breeding for disease resistance
Identification of resistant breeding sources:
Plants that may be less desirable in other ways,
but which carry a useful disease resistance trait.
Ancient known plant varieties and wild relatives,
cultivated varieties and land races are very
important to preserve because they are the most
common sources of enhanced plant disease
resistance. Others include mutations,somaclonal
variation & unrelated species.
Breeding methods:Crossing of a desirable but
disease-susceptible plant variety to another
variety that is a source of resistance, to generate
plant populations that mix and segregate for the
traits of the parents.The methods of crossing
include selection, introduction, marker assisted
selection, genetic engineering,hybridization-
includes backcross, pedigree,bulk
methods.Among these methods marker assisted
selection & backcross methods are important.
Screening: This may require artificial epidemics
created by inoculation of pathogen onto the plant
population.
Soil borne diseases- Sick plots are
created for testing resistance to such
diseases.
Air borne diseases- Spraying a
suspension of spores.
Seed borne diseases-dry spores are
dusted on seeds or seeds may be soaked
in a suspension of pathogen spores
Selection of disease-resistant individuals:
Breeders are trying to sustain or improve
numerous other plant traits related to plant yield
and quality, including other disease resistance
traits, while they are breeding for improved
resistance to any particular pathogen.
Each of the above steps can be difficult to
successfully accomplish, and many highly
refined methods in plant breeding and plant
pathology are used to increase the effectiveness
and reduce the cost of resistance breeding.
Advantages of breeding for disease resistance
Resistant varieties offer the cheapest
means of disease control.
Resistant varieties obviate the use of
fungicides ,thus reduce environmental
pollution
Effectiveness of resistant varieties is
not affected by environmental
conditions.
It safeguards against the inadvertent
release of such varieties that are most
susceptible than earlier varieties.
Problems in breeding for disease resistance
Resistance breakdown(vertifolia effect,
boom & bust cycle)
Horizontal resistance being durable but
difficulty relates to an accurate &
reliable assessment of the level of
resistance.
Sometimes there is negative correlation
between yield & disease resistance e.g
wheat leaf rust gene Lr34 causes a 5%
reduction in grain yield.
For introgression of multiple resistances
in varieties against several diseases
requires meticulous planning and far
greater effort than that required for
single resistance.
Refrences
Singh.B.D.1983, Plant breeding,
Breeding for biotic stress-Disease
resistance, pp-536-
577,7
th
edition,Kalyani publishers, New
Delhi.
Allard.R.W.1960, Principles of plant
breeding, Breeding disease resistant
varities, pp-359-368, John wiley& sons
New York.
Chaube.H.S&Pundhir.V.S. 2005Crop
diseases and their management,
Management through host genes, pp-
265-283.
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... detected Pff zoospores in drainage water from infected plants held at temperatures between 2 and 20°C but not from plants held at 26°C. Total amounts of inoculum released by infected plants and the length of time over which it was released, were greater at lower temperatures, especially below 10°C, in agreement with Reid's observations (Reid, 1949). Although the damage done to the plant by the pathogen is most evident in early summer as plants come under water stress, the damage to the roots occurred much earlier as there was no evidence of recent root infection at this time. ...
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... Disease epidemics can be created by inoculating the pathogen of the test plant or the inoculum source plant that was planted prior to planting the test material. Inoculation of plant pathogens can be carried out through planting in infected soil plots for soil-borne pathogens, spraying pathogen suspension for air-borne pathogens, and soaking the seeds with the pathogen suspension for seed-borne diseases (UnNabi and Choudhary 2015). ...
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View
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