The objective of plant improvement can be defined as the accumulation in a plant genome of the maximum number of favorable alleles involved in the expression of target traits. This task can be achieved through several approaches and selection schemes, including phenotypic observations and/or DNA marker technology. The emergence of molecular genetice and associated technologies represents a major new breeding tool; the current challenge is to integrate this tool and the information it generates into breeding schmes to further the development of efficient marker-assisted selection (MAS) strategies. This challenge is addressed in this paper, which particularly considers plant improvement under limited water conditions. After the presentation of QTL identification for target traits involved in maize drought tolerance and a description of two successful MAS experiments for both line and population improvement, prospects for plant improvement through biotechnology are discussed.
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