There is an inevitable cost of isolating DNA from each plant you want to genotype. Most medium sized labs use "kits" to do this. Cost of materials and labor are $2-5/sample in your own lab - probably double if done by a contract lab. Genotyping or identifying the presence or absence of particular markers is an additional cost, but the you are stuck with the limited range of markers available at a particular lab - which today is pretty limiting at the commercial labs. Total cost may be $10-15/plant, if the volume is high enough, but you'll have a limited set of markers. The large breeding companies can do the whole thing for $2-3/sample for a customized array of markers - putting them at a competitive advantage. I agree any such investment only makes sense when you can capture a downstream royalty to offset the expenses - which normally means hybrids.
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