Application of molecular markers in cool season food legumes breedingC JCoyneauthor.et alauthorAs the marker density has increased in linkage maps of the food legumes over the last ten years, many markers closely linked to economic traits, both qualitative and quantitative inherited, have been identified and published. Typical with other crops, soybean and maize for example, application of marker assisted selection (MAS) in food legumes has been aggressively pursued primarily by private institutions, due to costs and the more basic nature of public institutions research missions. However, developments in recent years have contributed to increases in both the utility and application of MAS in public and private institutes breeding and germplasm enhancement programs. These developments include diJ(ectly: (1) the development of PCR -based markers, sequence-tagged sites and co-dominant microsatellite markers available for pea, chickpea, lentil per se and the development of crosstaxa markers from Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus, (2) the reduction in costs of the MAS technology, and indirectly (3) increases in genomic tools such as the construction of legume EST and BAC libraries and sequencing of Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus, along with the elucidation of plant gene functions, particularly from Arabidopsis thaliana. We will review specific examples of the development status of MAS in pea for biotic stresses, chickpea for biotic stresses, lentil traits, other food legumes breeding and germplasm enhancement projects, and conclude with prospects for the future.Food Legumes2005Conference or Workshop Item