Marker-assisted foreground pyramiding of genes/QTL’s for grain quality and rust resistance genes in most popular wheat cv., HUW234 of Eastern Gangetic plains of India

Abstract

Marker-assisted foreground selection was employed to transfer four rust-resistant genes, Lr19/Sr25, Yr10, and Lr34, from HD2967 into the popular Indian wheat cultivar HUW234, which already possessed the quality traits, Gpc-B1 and HGW. Gene-specific SSR markers were utilized in each generation to confirm the presence of these target genes in the selected progeny. Fourteen families in the F<inf>5</inf> generation were identified through foreground marker-assisted selection, these families were found homozygous for all the target genes and out of 14 families, 9 families were selected further as agronomically superior. In the subsequent F<inf>6</inf> generation, again, these nine families were evaluated, and five agronomically superior new recombinant families were selected. These selected families displayed the desired quality traits, rust resistance, and high yield. Notably, these selected families demonstrated resistance to various rust pathotypes, including the most virulent pathotype 77 − 5 of leaf rust, as well as predominant pathotypes 238S119 and 40 A-1 for stripe and stem rust respectively. Of these nine families, five exhibited significantly higher grain yield and grain protein content compared to the original parent, HUW234. This suggests the potential for enhancing both grain quality and the durability of resistance against all three rust types in future wheat breeding programs. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology 2025.