Gene pyramiding for inbred line development through Marker Assisted Selection

Guoyou Ye¹, Koevin F Smith²

¹Bundoora Centre, Biosciences Division, The Department of Primary Industries Victoria, and Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre, 1 Park Drive, Bundoora Vic 3086

²Hamilton Centre, Biosciences Division, The Department of Primary Industries, Mount Napier Road, Hamilton, Vic 3300

Received: 21 January 2017                              Revised Accepted: 20 April 2017

Abstract

Gene pyramiding is accumulation of desirable genes in a genotype, especially in self-pollinated crops. Traditionally, the main use of gene pyramiding is to improve an existing elite cultivar through introgression of a few genes of large effects from other sources. It requires resourses depending on the trait and inheritance of the targeted genes.  Development of geneomics has enhanced knowledge of genetics and breeding of traits and of the relative genomic location of functionally related as well as neutral markers associated with the genes responsible for the traits. It facilitates the identification of genes with large effect for traits which are traditionally regarded as quantitative and not targeted by gene pyramiding program. Marker-based selection reduces/eliminates extensive phenotyping, provides more effective options to control linkage drag, makes the pyramiding of genes with very similar phenotypic effects possible, and reduces the breeding duration. Marker-based gene pyramiding is now the method of choice for inbred line development targeted at improving traits controlled by major genes. In this review, we focus on aspects of designing an efficient marker-based gene pyramiding strategy for inbred line development.

Key Words: Functional markers, Introgression lines, Marker-assisted selection, Molecular markers, Quantitative trait loci