was carried out using heterozygous flanking markers specific to the 5 BC2F1 populations produced from the 5 best plants of the BC1F1generation (Section 3.1.1). There were 14 selected individuals that were further used for background selection using 20 heterozygous markers. MAS is expected to cause a preservation of two BC generations [25]. We obtained ILs with recipient allele’s genomic composition ranging between 80 and 92% in 7 plants (P45-19, P45-39, P61-13, P61-6, P73-3, P101-4 and P101-8) (Supplementary Fig. 2). These 7 BC2F1 plants were used to develop BC3F1 generation. The number of BC generations required for the introgression of one target QTL is expected to reduce by two to four backcross generations, depending on the genetic differences between the recurrent and donor parents