marker-assisted selection in wheat - ictsd

140Marker-assisted selection – Current status and future perspectives in crops, livestock, forestry and fishprivate sectors should collaborate. With theadvent of MAS, there has been an obviousneed for maize breeders in the privatesector to become familiar with all aspectsof the process, and the public sector hasdeveloped several new short courses andtraining sessions in MAS-related concepts(Niebur et al., 2004; Crosbie et al., 2006).Such knowledge is now considered astandard component of recent graduatetraining. However, while new students mayhave an adequate grasp of the theoreticalaspects of MAS, their lack of exposure tothe private sector’s advanced infrastructurerepresents a gap in their education. Thissituation is similar to that of students witha new degree in engineering who joinadvanced engineering and design groups inother industries: the private sector’s capacityto concentrate and focus capital often leadsto advanced infrastructure that does notexist in the public sector. In such situations,new students have to navigate a rathersteep learning curve before they becomeproductive members of their new group.To reduce the slope of the learning curve,the private sector could provide internshipsto graduate students or to professors whoteach plant breeding courses. It is unlikelythat the public sector will have the resourcesto duplicate or exceed some features of theinfrastructure that has been developed formaize MAS in the private sector. Therefore,for some aspects of education, it will be toeveryone’s benefit to find ways to worktogether.private sector perspectives onMAS for maize improvementThe development of molecular markersin the 1980s provided the first tools todissect the genetic basis of traits andselect individuals based on their predictedgenetic value. Back in these early days, theavailability of genetic information was alimiting factor. Today’s landscape is verydifferent as advances in applied genomicsand laboratory technology have providedthe tools to generate genetic information forall traits of interest. Gene similarities andsynteny across genomes mean that muchof the information generated on any plantspecies has relevance to other plant species.The speed at which genetic informationbecomes available never ceases to increase.Rather than its availability, it is the abilityto handle and utilize genetic informationthat is becoming the limiting factor forMAS. New and improved informationtechnology and bioinformatics capabilitiestherefore need to be developed that connectthe growing wealth of genetic informationwith maize breeding programmes whereknowledge about the genetic basis of traitsand allelic variation at these loci is translatedinto varieties.QTL and gene mapping will remainkey for the generation and use of geneticinformation. As sequencing of cerealgenomes including maize progresses,physical mapping of cloned genes willbecome a powerful alternative to statisticalapproaches. Characterization of allelicdiversity at loci of interest can proceedfrom analyses of bi-parental populations orassociation studies. An effective alternativeis the use of sets of NILs, or introgressionline (IL) libraries (Peleman and van derVoort, 2003). As NILs developed arounda specific locus differ only by the alleleat this locus, and because most traits ofagronomic interest in maize are quantitative,phenotypic differences among such NILs areexpected to be rather small. High precisionphenotyping will not only be required butwill be critical for the evaluation of suchmaterial (Peleman and van der Voort, 2003).Private corporations have realized the need