Breeding for Development of Resistant Varieties (Direct and indirect Breeding)

Breeding for development of Resistant Varieties

there are two major methods for development of a resistant varieties and in this article we will take the example of  Breeding for Abiotic Stress resistance.

1. Direct Breeding for Abiotic Stress
2. Indirect Breeding for Abiotic Stress

Direct Breeding for Abiotic Stresses

this approach include the deliberately breeding of materials for stress resistance. in this breeding parents are carefully selected for their abilities against different stresses. and the segregating populations are tested under stressed environment to check the resistance of the population and then the selection is done to get the most resistant material.
direct breeding can be done to evaluate the better performing population in  a specific field or in a laboratory.
the results in fields are sometimes confusing because of some other factors like disease attack or insects attacks on the field which cause confusion while selecting the plants material.
so, therefore, this best way to select material is in lab condition where optimal environment can be created.

Indirect Breeding for Abiotic Stresses

in this breeding material is not deliberately developed for stress resistance. it is evaluated after the crop has been grown. it does not include any specific testing for selection of plants. breeders can select the plants according to their performance in a stressed environment. it is also stated that if a plant give good yield in optimum environment then it is possible for it to perform well under stress condition.

 How to perform Selection in Direct Breeding

In direct breeding the selection is mostly based on three criteria which include

• Selection for Survival
• Selection for higher yield
• Selection for traits which are contributing to resistance

in Selection for Survival plants are grown in a severe stressed environment and selection is performed on the base of survival rate of plants. which means that the plants which can survive that environment are selected and they are used for further testing

in case of Selection for Higher Yield , plants are selected from a stressed environment on the base of their yield. those plants which have higher yield will be selected than those who performs badly in that stress environment. it has been suggested that selection should be based on high biomass of plants so that after further breeding we can develop more high yielding cultivar

in Selection for traits which contributes to the resistance against the stress is of greater importance. selection should be done in such a way that the traits which are associated with high yield are also connected with resistance. very few traits are yet found and many has yet to be found by breeders.