rice molecular breeding laboratories in the genomics era current status and future considerations水稻分子育种实验室在基因组学时代现状和未来考虑.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Plant Genomics Volume 2008, Article ID 524847, 25 pages doi:10.1155/2008/524847 Review Article Rice Molecular Breeding Laboratories in the Genomics Era: Current Status and Future Considerations Bert C. Y. Collard,1 Casiana M. Vera Cruz,2 Kenneth L. McNally,2 Parminder S. Virk,2 and David J. Mackill2 1 Hermitage Research Station, Queensland Department of Primary Industries Fisheries, 604 Yangan Road, Warwick, Queensland 4370, Australia 2 International Rice Research Institute, DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines Correspondence should be addressed to Casiana M. Vera Cruz, c.veracruz@ Received 22 November 2007; Accepted 15 March 2008 Recommended by Yunbi Xu Using DNA markers in plant breeding with marker-assisted selection (MAS) could greatly improve the precision and efficiency of selection, leading to the accelerated development of new crop varieties. The numerous examples of MAS in rice have prompted many breeding institutes to establish molecular breeding labs. The last decade has produced an enormous amount of genomics research in rice, including the identification of thousands of QTLs for agronomically important traits, the generation of large amounts of gene expression data, and cloning and characterization of new genes, including the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms. The pinnacle of genomics research has been the completion and annotation of genome sequences for indica and japonica rice. This information—coupled with the development of new genotyping methodologies and platforms, and the development of bioinformatics databases and software tools—provides even more exciting opportunities for rice molecular breeding in the 21st century. However, the great challenge fo