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.