Abstract

The main tool for the improvement of farm animals is genetic selection. The efficiency of selection depends on t he accuracy of genetic evaluation. New molecular technologies are now available that can make possible an accurate identification of genotypes and widesp r e a d screening of animals in the population for m a r k e r traits related to quantitative characters. Among the n ew technologies the p olymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure of gene amplification represents a significant advance in the field of mol e c u l a r biology for the analysis of DNA and RNA (White et a l . . 1989). This technique will play a prominent role in future application of molecular methods to animal breeding.
 

J. F Medrano

Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Volume XIII. Plenary lectures, molecular genetics and mapping, selection, prediction and estimation., , 71–74, 1990