Marker assisted selection and Crop improvement
Marker assisted selection and Crop improvement Marker assisted selection or marker aided selection (MAS) is a process whereby a marker (morphological, biochemical or one based on DNA/RNA variation) is used for indirect selection of a genetic determinant or determinants of a trait of interest (i.e. productivity, disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and/or quality). This process is used in plant and animal breeding. Considerable developments in biotechnology have led plant breeders to develop more efficient selection systems to replace traditional phenotypic-pedigree-based selection systems. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is indirect selection process where a trait of interest is selected not based on the trait itself but on a marker linked to it. For example if MAS is being used to select individuals with a disease, the level of disease is not quantified but rather a marker allele which is linked with disease is used to determine disease presence. The assumption is that linked...