monsanto 08-23-05a

This document summarizes advances in plant breeding through the use of DNA markers and genotyping. It discusses how DNA markers have been identified and mapped, allowing traits to be rapidly incorporated into elite plant varieties through marker-assisted selection. Integrated IT systems now allow breeding programs to process millions of data points from thousands of lines. Marker-assisted breeding is accelerating the integration of biotech traits and enabling large-scale screening for simply inherited traits. This approach has increased genetic gain and the rate of breeding progress compared to conventional methods.