Molecular Marker Techniques and Genotypic Characterization Approaches in Plant Breeding

Plant breeding, often known as the science of plant development, is the study and practice of modifying a plant’s genetic makeup through a variety of breeding techniques to produce higher-quality, more prolific, and more resistant to harsh environmental circumstances. Classical breeding programs are indispensable techniques for increasing yields and improving plant characteristics, but they are progressing too slowly to meet the increasing food demand of the rapidly growing world population alone. Considering that the development periods of plants are generally long in traditional plant breeding, the opportunity to develop higher quality and more productive species that are more resistant to abiotic and biotic stress factors is very limited. Because there are multiple steps required in producing new plant varieties, including hybridization, selection, and testing, the process of creating a new variation takes several years. However, it is important to rapidly develop plant varieties with desirable characteristics to meet the increasing food demand of the rapidly growing world population, so the application of biotechnological methods integrated into plant breeding and combined with traditional methods can help reduce food shortages. Today, with the quick acceleration of biotechnology, molecular DNA marker technology has been developed in plant breeding and very important developments have been experienced. Thanks to the development of molecular tools for genetic research aimed at improving agricultural traits in plants related to crop yield, crop quality, or tolerance to adverse environmental conditions, we now have a much better understanding of plant genetics and the architecture and function of plant genomes. Therefore, it is of critical importance to revise current breeding procedures by incorporating molecular markers into breeding programs in the future.