**5.4 Marker assisted selection**

Phenotypic and molecular markers can be equally important in plant breeding programmes. The identification of "perfect" marker gene(s) conferring the required traits related to enhanced drought tolerance might prove to be elusive because abiotic stress tolerance is a multi-genic trait. Much current research effort in soybean breeding is focused on this goal. There is an urgent need of validated linked markers for stress tolerance. The usefulness of the different markers discussed above in MAS depends on many factors, not least the available infrastructure, technical expertise and the relevance of the technology to the traits under consideration. New and improved technologies for molecular marker selection are developing rapidly but the application of such technologies to plant breeding programmes remains slow. Unfortunately, there is still a wide gulf between advances in basic knowledge of the genes and proteins that underpin stress tolerance mechanisms and the successful application of this knowledge through MAS approaches in plant breeding programmes.
