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Updated: Jul 2, 2025

Author Spotlight: Streamlining Rice Breeding with CRISPR/Cas for Obtaining Optimal Phenotypic and Agronomic Traits
Published on: January 3, 2025
Revisiting growth-defence trade-offs and breeding strategies in crops
Mingjun Gao1, Zeyun Hao2, Yuese Ning2
1Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Institute of Biodiversity Science and Institute of Eco-Chongming, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Plants have evolved a multi-layered immune system to fight off pathogens. However, immune activation is costly and is often associated with growth and development penalty. In crops, yield is the main breeding target and is usually affected by high disease resistance. Therefore, proper balance between growth and defence is critical for achieving efficient crop improvement. This review highlights recent advances in attempts designed to alleviate the trade-offs between growth and disease resistance in crops mediated by resistance (R) genes, susceptibility (S) genes and pleiotropic genes. We also provide an update on strategies for optimizing the growth-defence trade-offs to breed future crops with desirable disease resistance and high yield.
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