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An increasing global population requires increased crop production but crop yield rates are currently declining, hence yield, stability, and sustainability traits should be a major focus of plant breeding. Crop characteristics such as resistance to disease, tolerance to biotic stress, abiotic stress and flexibility in the use of nutrients and water have acquired importance. The use of DNA markers is called marker assisted selection (MAS) in plant breeding. MAS has been an important part of improving the germplasm. A large number of genes / QTLs have been tagged with different molecular markers to enhance the trait improvement. Identification and molecular cloning of the quantitative trait loci (QTL) genes provides the possibility to investigate the naturally occurring variability in the alleles for each gene complexity. In order to improve productivity, new alleles, identified by functional genomics can enrich the genetic base of crops grown. Advances made in recent years in cereal genomics research thus give opportunities for improving the prediction of phenotypes from genotypes. This review provides an overview of the latest developments in MAS, QTL detection, gene pyramiding and discusses some of the specific problems that have arised in the application of molecular techniques for cereal breeding.

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