ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses genomics approaches and some suitable bioinformatics software tools for the study of plant systems in various stress conditions, suggesting how these can be integrated to improve the genomics-assisted breeding pipeline for the effective and efficient evaluation and selection of stress-tolerant plants. Gene bank and other phenotype data could be used as surrogates for stresses to select genotypes that furnish essential haplotypes that can be employed in breeding programs. Genotyping of the targeted population for trait mapping or product development is a crucial step in the identification of better alleles/superior lines for the development of stress-tolerant crops. The application of high-throughput plant phenotyping has forwarded the complex trait dissection, examination of stress-associated traits and potential for non-destructively recording plant traits. Linkage mapping and association mapping are two supportive approaches, critical to identifying candidate loci underlying the plant response to abiotic or biotic stresses.
