Why do we need to integrate molecular markers in plant breeding activities?

Integrating molecular markers into plant breeding activities offers several significant advantages and benefits:

·         Precision and Efficiency: Molecular markers allow breeders to precisely identify and track specific genetic variations associated with target traits. This precision enables more efficient selection of desirable traits, reducing the need for time-consuming and resource-intensive phenotypic evaluations.

·         Early Selection: Molecular markers can be used for marker-assisted selection (MAS), allowing breeders to identify desirable traits at early stages of plant development, often even before phenotypic traits are fully expressed. This early selection accelerates breeding cycles by enabling the elimination of undesirable plants early in the process, leading to faster variety development.

·         Enhanced Trait Introgression: Molecular markers facilitate the introgression of desirable traits from wild or exotic germplasm into elite breeding lines. By using markers linked to target genes or genomic regions of interest, breeders can efficiently transfer beneficial traits while minimizing the linkage drag of undesirable traits, leading to more rapid and precise trait introgression.

·         Genetic Diversity Preservation: Molecular markers help assess and preserve genetic diversity within crop germplasm collections. By characterizing genetic variation using markers, breeders can identify and select diverse parental lines for crossing, thereby maintaining genetic resilience and adaptability within breeding populations.

·         Pyramiding Multiple Traits: Molecular markers enable the simultaneous selection and pyramiding of multiple desirable traits into a single breeding line. This is particularly valuable for developing cultivars with complex trait combinations, such as disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and quality attributes. By using markers linked to different target genes, breeders can efficiently combine multiple traits in a single breeding program.

·         Genomic Selection: Molecular markers are integral to genomic selection approaches, which utilize genomic information to predict the breeding value of individual plants or lines. By leveraging genome-wide marker data and phenotypic information from training populations, genomic selection allows for more accurate and efficient selection of superior genotypes, even for traits with complex inheritance.

·         Marker-Assisted Trait Validation: Molecular markers enable breeders to validate the presence or absence of target traits in breeding populations. This validation ensures the accuracy of trait introgression and selection decisions, reducing the risk of selecting plants based solely on phenotypic evaluation, which can be influenced by environmental factors.

 

Overall, integrating molecular markers into plant breeding activities enhances the precision, efficiency, and effectiveness of breeding programs, ultimately leading to the development of improved crop varieties with enhanced agronomic performance, stress tolerance, and quality attributes.