Bioinformatics Tools for Marker Discovery in Plant Breeding

In the last decade, intensive research has been invested in marker-assisted selection (MAS). In parallel, there have been great advances in high-throughput genomic technology, such as microarrays and next-generation sequencing. These technologies overcome barriers for crops that do not have genomic information available and shorten the time from genomic darkness to discovery of an overwhelming number of markers. Consequently, MAS has become an available approach for any crop. Herein, the bioinformatics tools for high-throughput marker discovery using microarrays and high-throughput sequencing are reviewed and options for using them in MAS are suggested.