Editorial: Plant Genotyping: From Traditional Markers to Modern Technologies, Volume II

Yuri Shavrukov^1*Sunita Gupta^2*Gulmira Khassanova^3*

• ¹Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
• ²Sri Karan Narendra Agriculture University, Jobner, India
• ³S Seifullin Kazakh Agro Technical Research University, Astana, Kazakhstan

[Words: 1,581 -30 underlined words for DOI links = 1,551 words] [This manuscript is written in British English]The current Research Topic with 15 accepted and published papers confirms the importance of research focused on plant genotyping. The studies covered various methods, from traditional simple sequence repeats (SSR) to single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) based on advanced modern technologies. These papers addressed various questions from evolution and phylogeography to sequencing of entire genomes and the development of molecular markers, and their application in practical breeding. We summarise our Research Topic below.Molecular markers represent very important components of plant genotyping, where functional markers (FM) are powerful tools in plant breeding, described in the review paper in our Research Topic. The authors described the discovery, development and verification of FM using forward and reverse genetics approaches for gene identification and quantitative trait polymorphism analyses. The practical application of FM in marker-assisted selection (MAS) and backcrossing was accompanied by many examples from various crops. MAS is advantageous for selecting simple traits, but for complex traits, genomic selection based on whole genome information was reported to be more effective. The authors concluded that FM can serve as a key tool in breeding efforts to address diverse environmental and agricultural challenges (doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1637299).The loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method was successfully optimised for genotyping of the plant species Rhodiola crenulata (Hook.f. & Thomson) H.Ohba, an important resource of Chinese medicine. This method is based on identified SNP that were then confirmed in various genotypes of accessions and their hybrids using the classical cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) method. The authors developed the LAMP method using a qPCR instrument with the incorporation of two colour indicators. The accuracy of the presented genotyping results was clearly demonstrated, with perfect identifications and designations between very close Rhodiola species shown. The presented results also clearly differentiated Rh. crenulata from other close species and their hybrids which is crucially important for downstream applications in the pharmaceutical industry (doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1492083).Classic genotyping with SSR markers was used to study polymorphism and diversity 50 among 177 avocado trees from La the Canary Islands. This a very elegant 51 that used only nine selected SSR to demonstrate effective fingerprinting 52 of avocado genotypes. With only a small number of SSR markers, this provides a valuable tool due to its simple and cheap analysis using the reference data available. The authors 54 reported significant genetic polymorphism diversity within avocado genotypes from the 55 Canary Islands. They concluded that the conservation of this germplasm should be a priority In conclusion, plant genotyping will always be a popular topic since it is an important and