ABSTRACT
With recent advances in techniques such as pyrosequencing, mass spectrometry, highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and bioinformatics, a great deal of knowledge and data are generated in biology. At present, the “omics” sciences include genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Genomic study includes sequencing entire sets of DNA molecules inside the cell and studying the expression prole of genes under various conditions (transcriptomics). Expression proling of mRNA in a cell population has been extensively used to understand the underlying mechanism of different processes related to the different stages of development of organs such as shoots, roots, owers, and fruits, and tissue response to different biotic and abiotic stresses. The identied genes and their alleles have become markers for use in plant breeding programs. The development of linkage maps and whole genome sequencing have become an integral part of crop improvement programs. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs), the DNA regions on chromosomes which affect or control polygenic traits, can easily be located using linkage maps and the phenotyping of mapping populations. Therefore, DNA markers, mapping, whole genome sequencing, and trancriptome analysis have become part of crop genetics.
