Table of Contents

Abstract: Agronomy is a highly multidisciplinary area of science. It includes all aspects of science and technology related to the production and utilization of plants for food, feed, fuel, fiber and even land reclamation. In many respects, agronomy represents the integration of activities and disciplines ranging from genetics, chemistry and biotechnology to ecology, soil science and meteorology. [...]

Abstract: Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) has lagged other crops on use of molecular genetic technology for cultivar development in part due to lack of investment, but also because of low levels of molecular polymorphism among cultivated varieties. Recent advances in molecular genetic technology have allowed researchers to more precisely measure genetic polymorphism and enabled the development of low density genetic maps for A. hypogaea and the identification of molecular marker or QTL’s for several economically significant traits. Genomic research has also been used to enhance the amount of genetic diversity available for use in conventional breeding through the development of transgenic peanut, and the creation of TILLING populations and synthetic allotetraploids. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is becoming more common in peanut cultivar development programs, and several cultivar releases are anticipated in the near future. There are also plans to sequence the peanut genome in the near future which should result in the development of additional molecular tools that will greatly advance peanut cultivar development.