E3 Journal of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research

E3 Journal of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 4 (5) pp. 73-80, May 2013; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2141-7474

Molecular markers and transposon mutagenesis for genes identification

Abstract

Molecular markers now help plant breeders to track useful genes conferring agronomic and quality traits, including yield, drought and heat stress resistance, insect and disease resistance, and many others. Molecular markers are simple ways to detect the genetic differences between individuals or populations. There are many types of molecular markers such as: restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPDs), sequence-tagged-sites (STSs), microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). They improve the efficiency of plant breeding by carrying out indirect selection through molecular markers linked to the trait of interest. Therefore, the most applications of molecular markers techniques in marker assisted breeding include genetic distance analysis, variety identification, isolation of markers linked to specific genes, and marker assisted backcrossing. Transposon-based approaches are very powerful for identification of essential and infection-related genes in the different plants and the context of microbial genomics. The development of techniques including PCR-based signature-tagged mutagenesis is now used to find genes

Keywords: Molecular markers, transposon mutagenesis, identification genes