Section 1. Introduction -- Chapter 1. Diagnostics in plants; T. Lübberstedt -- Chapter 2. Non-DNA biomarkers; Christin Falke -- Section 2. Identification of quantitative trait polymorphisms (QTPs) -- Chapter 3. Gene identification: forward genetics; Qing Ji -- Chapter 4. Gene identification: reverse genetics; George Haughn -- Chapter 5. Allele re-sequencing technologies; Torben Asp -- Chapter 6. Association studies; Yongsheng Chen -- Section 3. Validation of QTPs -- Chapter 7. TILLING; Gunter Backes -- Chapter 8. Gene Replacement; Paul Hooykaas, Sylvia de Pater -- Section 4. Conversion of QTPs into Functional Markers -- Chapter 9. SNP genotyping technologies; Bruno Studer -- Chapter 10. INDEL genotyping technologies; Toshihiko Yamada et al -- Chapter 11. Sequencing for genotyping; Rajeev Varshney -- Section 5. Development of Non-DNA Biomarkers -- Chapter 12. Methylation-based markers; Emidio Albertini, Gianpiero Marconi -- Chapter 13. RNA; Stefan Scholten -- Chapter 14. Metabolites; Olga Zabotina -- Section 6. Deposition of Diagnostic Marker information -- Chapter 15. Plant Genetic Databases; Carolyn Lawrence -- Section 7. Statistical considerations -- Chapter 16. Epistasis, QTP x environment interactions, and pleiotropy: value of a FM; Everton Brenner -- Section 8. Applications in plant breeding -- Chapter 17. Parent selection – usefulness; Adel Abdel-Ghani -- Chapter 18. Variety registration and protection; David Lee et al -- Section 9. Examples -- Chapter 19. Maize; Mingliang Xu et al -- Chapter 20. Rice; Yongzhong Xing et al -- Chapter 21. Traits; Birgit Arnholdt-Schmitt, Helia Cardoso.

“Diagnostics in Plant Breeding” is systematically organizing cutting-edge research reviews on the development and application of molecular tools for the prediction of plant performance. Given its significance for mankind and the available research resources, medical sciences are leading the area of molecular diagnostics, where DNA-based risk assessments for various diseases and biomarkers to determine their onset become increasingly available. So far, most research in plant genomics has been directed towards understanding the molecular basis of biological processes or phenotypic traits. From a plant breeding perspective, however, the main interest is in predicting optimal genotypes based on molecular information for more time- and cost-efficient breeding schemes. It is anticipated that progress in plant genomics and in particular sequence technology made recently will shift the focus from “explanatory” to “predictive” in crop science. This book assembles chapters on all areas relevant to development and application of predictive molecular tools in plant breeding by leading authorities in the respective areas.