The steadily increasing world population and the concurrent reduction in
cultivated lands are two major threats to food security, especially in the underdeveloped
countries. Among the many strategies that can mitigate this situation modern
biotechnologies play a central role. Many tools are available to scientists to face the
challenges of increased production needs and sustainable agriculture. Among these,
genetic modification and molecular breeding appear to be the most promising. Both of
these approaches require the combined use of technologies such as genome sequencing,
genotyping and phenotyping and large-scale data analysis and mining to determine
genes and functions amenable to manipulation in the target species. Molecular markers,
used in both target gene studies and assisted breeding, represent a powerful tool. This
chapter deals with their nature and applications, and also describes some case studies
where their use in marker-assisted selection has positively affected some target crop
species.
Keywords: Breeding, Cassava, Database, Food security, Genetics, Genome-wide
association studies (GWAS), Genomic selection, Genomics, Grapevine, Manihot,
Mapping, Marker-assisted selection (MAS), Molecular markers, Nutrition,
Pathogen resistance, Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Quantitative Trait locus
(QTL), Tomato, World wide web (WWW).
