Development and application of molecular DNA markers in Africa: a South African view

The development of molecular DNA markers for genetic analysis has greatly increased our understanding of the structure and behaviour of plant genomes. Different DNA marker technologies exist, however, information suggests that restriction fragment polymorphisms, amplified fragment length polymorphisms and also microsatellites are currently the most effective techniques for the detection of polymorphisms in plant genomes. Several other technologies, such as cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism, representational difference analysis or suppression subtractive hybridisation analysis, and cDNA microarrays, belong to a range of novel techniques very useful for the analysis of transcriptome variation, under specific stressful environmental conditions. However, the application of these technologies especially in Africa is not trivial, as execution of these techniques is largely dependent upon the availability of a technological advanced infrastructure, technical skills in plant molecular biology and substantial funding of the research groups involved in this type of research. Different molecular DNA-based marker techniques and their application to genome analysis and molecular breeding, and suitability for use in Africa, are discussed in this review.