Breeding by Design^(TM)

The development of high throughput molecular marker technologies and automated scoring of multiple markers simultaneously has opened the possibilities for the development of highly saturated molecular

The development of high throughput molecular marker technologies and automated scoring of multiple markers simultaneously has opened the possibilities for the development of highly saturated molecular marker maps of crop genomes in a cost effective manner. The application of these molecular tools for the unravelling of the genetic control of relevant agronomical traits is a central challenge for current plant geneticists. In addition to the resolution of the molecular marker scoring, the resolution of the scoring of the phenotypic variability of the traits under study is an essential factor for successful genetic studies. We present an approach towards the aim of establishing the link between phenotype and genotype, based on novel association mapping algorithms and methods, using precise phenotyping protocols in multiple environments. The results of an increasing amount of knowledge on the genetic control of traits, will present new challenges to plant breeders of combining the favourable alleles at multiple loci in their crossing and selection procedures. This process is what we have called Breeding by Design and we will present some of the tools we have developed to assist the breeder in this process.