The varieties have substantially contributed (50-75%) to the increase of sugar cane yields. Its current improvement is limited by the narrow genetic base and its low use in selection. The molecular markers (MM) offer successful solutions for this purpose in much of the cultivation, and they are considered among the ten technologies of greater impact of the next century. Its standardization inside and among laboratories constitutes a challenge for its application, especially in developing countries.

As Cuba's admission to the International Consortium of Sugar Cane Molecular Biology was denied, and public access of results and materials was restricted, the authors had to develop these researches inside the country. This work includes the results obtained with four MM types (RFLP, AFLP, RAMP and RAPD) in: the characterization of our enhancement's basic germplasm (foundation clones, new forms for its amplification and important commercial progenitors); the development of novel methods in order to determine funds of sugar cane diversity and its use in recommendation of ways; the scientific bases for the use of MM as sugar cane describers, for the first time in Cuba, with no reported antecedents for this cultivation; the development of genetic statistical bases for mapping in polyploids (4x-16x) and of software for its execution, not available in the market (MATGEN and POLIMAP). This group of theoretical-practical results allows choosing in a more efficient way the genetic variability to obtain new varieties and to apply this technology of high impact factor, standardized under our conditions for the most internationally used MM systems, in the search of markers for the selection in sugar cane and in other cultivations of national interest.