Review reveals that integrating molecular tools enhances disease resistance in crops, suggesting a need for both conventional and modern methods.
In the face of the ongoing threat posed by plant diseases to global food security, this article reviews the integrative relationship between conventional and modern plant breeding strategies. While conventional breeding, based on phenotypic selection and hybridization, laid the historical foundation for crop improvement, modern genetic tools have brought about a qualitative leap in the precision and efficiency of this science. The paper advances a central hypothesis: strategic integration of the accumulated wisdom of conventional breeding with the power of molecular tools is no longer optional but an imperative for developing disease-resistant cultivars that are both effective and sustainable. To demonstrate this, key areas of integration are reviewed, including marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection (GS), and gene pyramiding, highlighting the role of genetic engineering and editing as supporting tools for introducing novel genetic diversity. The article concludes that this systematic integration significantly accelerates the pace of breeding programs, enhances their precision, and ultimately leads to the production of agricultural varieties with more robust and sustainable resistance, thereby strengthening the capacity to address future challenges in agricultural production.
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Jarallah et al. (2025) studied this question.