ABSTRACT
Breeding is the most widely used and most effective method used to control plant disease. This chapter highlights some plant breeding strategies used to control plant diseases. Several breeding strategies have been used for disease control depending upon the types of sources of resistance available and the nature of the pathogen. Sequential release strategy uses one resistance gene in agricultural production of the crop at any given time, and the virulence-gene composition of the pathogen population, especially relative to the resistance gene being used, is monitored annually on a differential series of host genotypes that carry different resistance genes singly or in various combinations. The rotation of cultivars with major genes for resistance is based upon the concept that races of a pathogen indigenous to a cropping area are a result of the presence of major genes for resistance in varieties being grown in the area.
