In addition to genome projects and karyotype analysis by in situ hybridization techniques, a major advance in plant genome analysis came from the development of genetic maps based on molecular markers (<a href="#figura1">Figure 1</a>). This review clarifies the basic premises used for genetic mapping and its main applications, especially in plant breeding. The theories of segregation, recombination and linkage are considered and related to the construction of genetic maps based on molecular markers. Information about marker types, population mapping, calculation of the recombination rate, segregation distortion, linkage groups and genetic order determination is presented. Exploitation of linkage mapping for marker assisted selection, gene cloning and synteny comparisons is discussed.
linkage maps; molecular marker; QTL; comparative mapping
