Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding

Precision breeding with genomic tools: A decade long journey of molecular breeding in rice

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Plant breeding helps in recombining and fixation of
desirable alleles which enables the development of
improved varieties with better productivity. Though classical
plant breeding has contributed enormously in achieving
genetic gains in different crops including rice, the
challenges imposed by resource constraints as well as
greater anticipated demand need better tools to meet the
expectations. Molecular breeding which uses modern
genomic tools integrated with plant breeding offers
enormous potential for improvement of crop varieties. The
present review focusses on the achievements of ICAR-IARI
in molecular breeding in rice wherein as many as eight rice
varieties were incorporated with genes governing
resistance/tolerance to different traits and released for
commercial cultivation in India. The various factors which
enabled the successful integration of molecular breeding
including development of infrastructure, human resources
and the genetic and genomic resources have been
discussed in detail. All the examples of translational
research are from the marker assisted backcross breeding
strategy, which limits the scope for achieving yield gains.
In the foregoing discussion, the challenges and the
opportunities for implementation of molecular breeding in
rice to realize the full potential of these tools in plant
breeding are discussed based on the decade long
experience, which may be valuable for other crops as well.
 

Keywords: Molecular breeding, climate-smart varieties, stress tolerance, grain quality, rice

Info

Year: 2019
Volume: 79
Issue: 1, Supplement
 Article DOI: 10.31742/IJGPB.79S.1.7
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906

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