Molecular marker assisted selection as approach to increase the selection efficiency of drought tolerant genotypes

Identifying the complete-linked molecular markers with target gene and mapping its chromosome locus is an important goal in plant breeding for gene cloning and marker-aided selection. Due to complexity of the interactions, in most of the agronomic traits, especially the interaction between the grain yield and the environmental factors, classic methods do not function appropriately in improving agronomic traits at present. If the selection is made based on genotype by DNA markers, the efficiency of selection will increase considerably. In a genetic evaluation program, the combination between the data from the linkage between marker position and quantitative traits loci (QTL) as well as the phenotypic data can be used to increase the accuracy of the assessments and thereby the accuracy of selection. The selection in which inherited values are used along with the marker data in selection of superior genotypes in a breeding program is called Marker-assisted-selection (MAS).