ABSTRACT
Kazusa DNA Research Institute, 2-6-7 Kazusa-kamatari, Kisarazu, Chiba 292-0818, Japan. *Corresponding author: sisobe@kazusa.or.jp
hybridization, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), high-throughput DNA sequencing and fluorescence detection systems, has facilitated the development of different types of DNA markers, as listed in Table 4-1. The first widely used DNA marker type was restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), when hybridization technology and gene-derived probes (gene segments and/or cDNAs) were available. To cover the entire genome of soybean in a cost-effective manner, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers using degenerate or random primers were introduced. As DNA sequencing technology advanced in the mid-1990s, microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs) became the major marker type used because of their high degree of amplification and reproducibility. And, very recently, the so-called new generation of DNA sequencers can output an enormous amount of sequence data inexpensively, which is facilitating the generation of the most sophisticated type of DNA marker, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
