Location: Crop Improvement and Genetics Research
Project Number: 2030-21430-014-005-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 25, 2017
End Date: Sep 24, 2022
Objective:
The immediate objectives of this cooperative research project are to use a genomics-based approach to generate wheat genomics resources and utilize them to understand genetic variations in chromosome regions controlling end-use quality and other important traits in wheat. The ultimate goal is to utilize these resources and tools for the improvement of wheat through breeding and biotechnological approaches. The first phase of the research will focus on development of effective and high-throughput technology to generate targeted sequencing data for genotyping and wheat diversity assays. The sequence information will be useful for designing molecular markers targeted to important traits such as grain quality and flour allergenicity.
Approach:
The proposed research will develop a wheat-specific sequence capture platform that can enrich wheat genomic DNA from targeted regions, particularly these controlling wheat grain quality and yield, for high-throughput sequencing. Such a wheat-specific sequence capture array will be used to survey genetic diversity among wheat germplasm and cultivated wheat varieties. The sequences that differ among wheat lines can be used to associate specific genotypes with phenotypes (traits) and to develop molecular markers that can be used to detect the genes that underlie traits via polymerase chain reaction and other genotyping methods. Validated markers will be deployed to facilitate marker-assisted selection in U.S. breeding programs.
