Application of genetic markers offers many clear advantages:

• Speed: Markers reduce the number of breeding cycles required to bring new lines to market.
• Consistency: Markers eliminate environmental variation from evaluation trials and also allow screening for resistance to pathogens without the biohazard of introducing the pathogen into the population.
• Efficient: Markers eliminate “also-rans” from a breeding program at a much earlier stage. A breeder can still work with the same number of progeny but early stage screening means that the progeny are already superior in many ways.
• Effective: Markers allow breeders to manage complex multigenic traits unlocking a whole new level of potential for their breeding program.

Overall genetic performance of a breeding population will follow a bell curve distribution.

Markers allow breeders to find individuals in the right-hand tail of the curve more quickly, more consistently and at a more competitive cost.