These QTLs have been successfully used in marker-assisted backcross (MABC) breeding programs to improve the drought tolerance of widely adopted popular but drought-susceptible rice varieties such as IR64, Swarna, MR219 and MRQ74 (Swamy et al. 2013; Swamy et al. 2014; Noraziyah et al. 2016a; Noraziyah et al. 2016b).
Considerable efforts are being made in breeding programs to improve resistance and tolerance to Pratylenchus neglectus in the major crops wheat and barley, which makes it vital to develop appropriate selection tools in medics.
Together, these data will not only contribute to a further understanding of the characteristics and functions of the GRF family in different species, but will also provide a promising strategy for Chinese cabbage breeding programs to improve yield/head size.
SNP markers within regulatory elements can therefore affect traits by influencing the expression of genes, and could potentially be used in breeding programs to improve complex traits such as drought tolerance, growth and wood quality traits.
This has facilitated the development of closely linked molecular markers that can be used in breeding programs to improve the tolerance of wheat and barley grown in areas where B toxicity is a problem.
The fiber QTLs, especially QTL clusters reported herein can be readily implemented in a cotton breeding program to improve fiber quality via MAS strategy.
It is one of eight awards nationwide by the DOE last month aimed at accelerating genetic breeding programs to improve plant feedstocks for the production of biofuels, biopower and bio-based products.
The common regions for the multiple QTLs across environments as co-localized regions on chromosomes 1, 4, 6, 8, and 12 could be due to linkage or pleiotropic effect, which might be helpful for multiple QTL introgression for marker-assisted breeding programs to improve the salinity tolerance of adaptive and popular but otherwise salinity-sensitive rice varieties.
