From markers to breeding
Not all markers that are discovered in scientific research are suitable for MAS-programs in practice. This could be due to a number of reasons, for example, they might be:
- not linked tightly enough to the genes of interest
- be too technically difficult to operate
- be too expensive to use at a large scale
Therefore, markers have to be tested and often further developed to make sure they reliably predict phenotypes and can be applied in high throughput screening. To develop markers suitable for MAS, usually the following steps are performed:
- high-resolution mapping
- validation of markers
- haplotyping
- marker conversion for high-throughput assessment