Molecular Markers In Public Breeding: How Best to Keep Pace In the Post Genomics Era.

To say that Moore’s law applies to the rate of innovation seen in DNA detection platforms would be incorrect. The rate of change observed in the last few years in DNA detection platforms has far exceeded Moore’s law. Ten years ago it cost $10,000 to sequence a Mb of DNA, today it cost $0.31 per Mb. While most individuals will agree that SNP are the best molecular marker for breeding in crop plants; how to detect them is the main question.  Should we utilize SNP platforms for direct detection of SNP or sift through short DNA reads from next-gen sequencing platforms. Each method has its pro’s and con’s and capacity must be weighed against cost and complexity. Public breeding and genotyping facilities are currently weighing these options and realizing that the solution is not always simple.