Integration of Molecular Markers in Rice Improvement: A Case Study on Resistance to Rice yellow mottle virus

(eds M.C.S. Wopereis et al.) 161 to be limited in comparison with the number of publications that report genetic linkage between markers and genes of interest. This may be explained by the delay observed in the theoretical development of a methodology and its practical outputs or absence of information on the methodology used (Collard and Mackill, 2008). Van Damme et al. (2011) hypothesize that it may result from a lack of access to the information in some developing countries and these authors therefore developed a database that synthesizes all the markers available for MAS in 19 species. Rice, the staple food of half of the world’s population, has two cultivated species, Oryza sativa that originated from Asia and is cultivated worldwide, and Oryza glaberrima, which is endemic to Africa. Oryza sativa is high yielding, but lacks sources of resistance to some strains of rice diseases and insect pests specific to African rice-cropping agro-ecosystems. Conversely, O. glaberrima is low yielding, shatters spontaneously and has few panicle branches, but often constitutes a source of resistance to African pests and diseases. Some of its ‘rustic’ characteristics were successfully transferred into Introduction