ABSTRACT
Before the rise of plant biotechnology, the only means of transferring a desirable gene from an ordinary variety to an elite variety of the same species was to crossbreed the two, backcrossing the progeny that manifest this trait with the elite cultivar over a number of generations. Typically, a breeder needed 10 years to derive an elite cultivar with the desirable gene by this laborious process. With his shuttle breeding method, U.S. agronomist and plant pathologist Norman Borlaug could scarcely reduce the time much below 5 years.
