2012 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416): 1. To identify marker trait association between elite North American oat varieties and key traits including total dietary fiber, beta glucan, vitamin E, crown and stem rust resistance, barley yellow dwarf resistance, height, lodging, plumps, test weight. 2. Develop and use the marker-trait association for predictive assays through the USDA, ARS Genotyping centers by specifically placing the equipment needed to perform the assays. 1b.Approach (from AD-416): Six-hundred and twelve oat lines representing the diversity important to North American Oat breeding programs and elite lines from each breeding program will be grown in ID, NY, IL, IN, WI, MN, ND, TX, LA, NC, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and the UK. Agronomic traits will be collected by the breeder in at least ID, NY, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. Seed harvested from these locations will be test for milling quality for avenanthramide, a-tocotrienol, atocopherol, total dietary fiber, and ß-glucan. Disease data (Crown rust, Stem rust, and BYDV) will be collected in TX, IN, IL, LA, ID, WI, Ottawa, and MN, while freeze tolerance data will be collected in NC. Genotypic and phenotypic data will be used to determine marker-trait association using JMP Genomics and TASSEL. An open array real-time TaqMan assay will develop to run predictive assay on marker-trait associations. 3.Progress Report: This project is related to Objective 2 of the parent project to develop improved methods of marker-assisted selection and apply markers in development of improved cultivars of small grains. Researchers at the Eastern Regional Genotyping lab at Raleigh, NC were trained in the use of an Illumina BeadXpress instrument for genotyping small grains samples. The instrument was used to evaluate single nucleotide polymorphism markers associated with genes for resistance to crown rust, Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus and genes affecting quality in oat breeding lines. Data were provided to collaborators to confirm diagnostic ability of assays.