Identification of Co-Segregating RAPD Marker Linked to Powdery Mildew Resistance Gene Pm18 in Wheat

The Pm18 gene of wheat confers resistance to the powdery mildew which is one of the mostserious diseases in many regions of the world. In this study, bulked segregant analysis(BSA) was used to develop randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers linked toPm18 gene. Three hundred and twenty decamer primers were screened and one of them wasidentified as RAPD marker (S411600) linked to Pm18. Using the F2 mapping population fromthe cross Pm18Chancellor, the marker S411600 was shown to co-segregate with the genePm18. This marker can be conveniently used for marker-assisted selection in wheatbreeding programs for the identification or pyramiding of Pm18 with other resistancegenes.