ABSTRACT
Genotypic analysis, including genome mapping are emerging as important contributors to crop improvement. This chapter aims to review progress made in these areas and to discuss the various potential applications of these methodologies for soybean improvement. The number of backcross generations required to achieve introgression and donor genome elimination can be dramatically reduced by selecting, not only for the markers tagging the gene of interest, but by selecting against the remaining donor genome markers. A limited number of studies have been conducted towards identifying quantitative trait loci in the soybean genome. Geneticists have the ability to only determine the genotype of an individual and thereby correlate markers with traits, but they can evaluate the genotypic composition of entire populations. Studies of the organization and structure of the genome, the arrangement of repeated sequences and duplicate genetic factors may provide us with a means to understand mechanisms that affect gene expression and quantitative trait variation.
