Molecular marker technology linked to pest and pathogen resistance in wheat breeding

Considerable advances in DNA marker technology in recent years have led to an increased understanding of the complexity of the wheat genome as well as the mapping of a large number of genes of interest. In the process, 60 loci linked to disease and pest resistance have been mapped using different marker applications. Although restriction fragment length polymorphism markers have been the basis for most of this work, useful markers have also been obtained using random amplified polymorphic DNA, sequence characterized amplified regions, amplified fragment length polymorphisms and, most recently, simple sequence repeats. The next challenge facing breeders is the application of these markers in breeding programmes.