Molecular Tools for Nursery Plant Production

Peng Jiang

Abstract

Breeding strategies in nursery plants is lagging behind most of the agricultural crops while molecular methods have been adopted last decade. Identification and verification of varieties for nursery plants were applied by molecular tools. Marker assisted breeding utilizes the DNA markers linked to genes of interest to achieve efficient selection strategies. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is a process whereby a marker is used for indirect selectionof genetic determinants of a trait of interest. There are different kinds of molecular markers, such as restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPDs), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These molecular markers allow high density DNA marker maps. In this review, all of these molecular markers have been applied widely among crops and ornamentals and the advantages and disadvantages have been listed. The best molecular markers are those that distinguish multiple alleles per locus (highly polymorphic) and are co-dominant.