Genotyping provides a method to detect and estimate genetic diversity between and within species. Singular nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common form of genetic variation and form the basis of a diverse range of genotyping methods. This book is the result of a workshop to review development in SNP genotyping for plants and builds on the 2001 publication Plant Genotyping: The DNA Fingerprinting of Plants.

A total of 26 authors contributed to 15 chapters with a strong bias to the southern hemisphere. The chapters provide a good overall account of the discovery and methods for detection of SNPs and how these approaches are being applied in plant genotyping.

The chapter ‘SNPs and their use in maize’, in which the authors highlight the power of next generation sequencing technologies, is a particularly authoritative description of the commercial drivers for SNP deployment in maize breeding.

The Mass ARRAY system described by Irwin is based on mass spectrometry, a technology particularly well suited to distinguishing gene paralogues, a common feature of complex, polyploidy plant genomes.

The chapter on marker discovery in pasture plant improvement is particularly welcome, given the global significance of pasture species. The breeding systems of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and white clover (Trifolium repens) present many challenges and opportunities for SNP detection and deployment in these species.

Unfortunately other chapters are at best peripheral to the main theme of SNP genotyping and detract from an otherwise useful account of this topic, which will be the cornerstone of future important genome-based approaches for plant breeding.