Current strategies and future prospects of resistance breeding in ornamentals

authored by: T. Debener
Abstract: Ornamental crops pose several problems to breeding for disease and pest resistance. The large number of ornamental crops and the short turnover time of varieties limit the input invested to the individual variety. In addition many ornamental crops are polyploids hampering genetic analyses of resistance traits. In current breeding programmes for most crops stringent selection for disease resistance is either omitted or performed at relatively late stages of the selection program. However, knowledge about the pathosystem including the genetic composition of both the host plant and the pathogen populations will allow efficient early selection for resistance in conventional breeding programs. These strategies can be significantly improved by the application of molecular diagnostic tools as e.g. molecular markers. Examples of improved selection schemes as well as marker applications will be shown for the pathosystem rose/black spot. A limited number of ornamental crops are amenable to positional cloning (as e.g. roses) or transposon tagging (as e.g. petunias) of genes allowing the de novo isolation of genetic factors important for disease resistance. Mid- and long term improvements can also be expected from current genome projects and the application of biotechnology.
Organisation(s): Institute of Plant Genetics
Section Molecular Plant Breeding
Type: Contribution to book/anthology
Pages: 125-130
No. of pages: 6
Publication date: 2009
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Horticulture
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.836.17 (Access: Unknown)