With the development of molecular marker technology in the 1980s, the fate of plant breeding has changed. Different types of molecular markers have been developed and advancement in sequencing technologies has geared crop improvement. To explore the knowledge about molecular markers, several reviews have been published in the last three decades; however, all these reviews were meant for researchers with advanced knowledge of molecular genetics. This review is intended to be a synopsis of recent developments in molecular markers and their applications in plant breeding and is devoted to early researchers with a little or no knowledge of molecular markers. The progress made in molecular plant breeding, genetics, genomic selection and genome editing has contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of molecular markers and provided deeper insights into the diversity available for crops and greatly complemented breeding stratagems. Genotyping-by-sequencing and association mapping based on next-generation sequencing technologies have facilitated the identification of novel genetic markers for complex and unstructured populations. Altogether, the history, the types of markers, their application in plant sciences and breeding, and some recent advancements in genomic selection and genome editing are discussed.

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Mulberries (Morus L.) show a great deal of genetic variability and adaptability to various environments. There are more than 24 species of mulberries in cultivated and wild forms. In Turkey, three Morus species, M. alba L., M. nigra L., and M. rubra L., are grown. In this study, we attempted to characterize 43 Morus accessions originating from distinct regions of Turkey using fluorescent dye amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and capillary electrophoresis. The accessions belonged to M. alba, M. nigra, and M. rubra; M. alba consisted of white- and purple-fruited samples. Eight primer combinations generated a total of 416 bands, 337 of which were polymorphic (80.5%). Resolving powers of the AFLP primers ranged from 0.410 to 0.942 making a total of 5.015, whereas the polymorphic information content ranged from 0.662 to 0.898 with an average of 0.812. Unweighted pair-group method of arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering of the accessions showed three major groups representing M. nigra, M. rubra, and M. alba accessions. The M. alba group had two subgroups that were not correlated with fruit color. The UPGMA dendrogram of average taxonomic differences confirmed these results. The principle coordinate analysis demonstrated that M. nigra accessions had limited genetic variation. In conclusion, our study indicated that M. nigra and M. rubra are molecularly distinct from M. alba. Our results also suggest that M. nigra accessions having a low level of morphological variation are molecularly similar.

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