Applications of molecular markers

Taking ownership of the genome

Almost every major plant and animal species has a genome mapping project. Databases for most of these can be accessed at the National Agricultural Library World Wide Web site (http://probe.nalusda.gov:8000/. The availability of genomic maps will have profound changes on plant and animal breeding. The way we do experiments will be different, because of the tools we have to work with.

• Decreased number of generations in a genetic cross
• Increased use of traits from diverse species
• Use of genes for quantitative traits (eg. yeild, height)
• Gene discovery based on map position
• Quantitation of genetic diversity in accession lines
• Cultivar identification

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