Lin  Zhao , Letan  Luo , Erkui  Yue , Jiang  Shi

Institute of Crop (Ecology) Research, Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310024, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2025, Vol. 16, No. 2   
Received: 19 Mar., 2025    Accepted: 21 Apr., 2025    Published: 25 Apr., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study analyzed how doubled haploid breeding and germplasm innovation can achieve synergistic effects in disease-resistant maize breeding, with case studies exploring their application in resistance breeding against southern rust, northern leaf blight, and multiple disease resistance. The study highlights the successful applications of these technologies and their future prospects. It was found that doubled haploid breeding significantly accelerates the selection process for disease-resistant traits, particularly enabling rapid screening of resistant genotypes during the induction and doubling stages. Concurrently, germplasm innovation offers a wealth of genetic resources for disease resistance breeding by utilizing local germplasm, wild relatives, and exotic resources to identify and incorporate new resistance genes, thus further improving breeding efficiency. This study demonstrates how these methods can substantially enhance the efficiency and precision of disease-resistant maize breeding, providing an effective technical pathway for future disease control and crop improvement in maize.

Maize; Doubled haploid breeding; Germplasm innovation; Disease-resistant breeding; Synergy