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Molecular markers: A novel vista in vegetable improvement.

Shweta, Sonia Sood

Vegetables are the major source of nutrients in the daily diet in both developing and developed countries. But these groups of plants are most susceptible to a variety of pests. The growth and economic yield are severely reduced under a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. A number of conventional breeding methods are available for genetic improvement of vegetable crops. But, selection of desirable plants in the breeding programme often becomes misleading due to inadequate biotic and abiotic stress conditions and other environmental factors. Recent advances in the development of molecular markers have made it possible for reliable selection and to speed up the breeding cycle in vegetable crops. Molecular markers directly reveal the polymorphism at the level of DNA. These are tags that can be used to identify specific genes and locate them in relation to other genes. Therefore, in the present article, the authors offered a detailed review of the role of molecular markers to assist breeding programme of important vegetable crops.