Our group is one of 17 groups across the nation that will participate in a Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) titled "Applied Wheat Genomics" (http://maswheat.ucdavis.edu/) with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). The overall goal of this project is to transfer new developments in genomics to wheat improvement by combining the expertise of genomics researchers, wheat breeders, and end users. This multi-state, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary network of public wheat breeding programs and high-throughput genotyping laboratories will work together to discover new valuable quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genes of agronomic relevance and to rapidly deploy these into adapted varieties throughout the country using forward marker-assisted selection (MAS) strategies.
Visit the Wheat CAP website (http://maswheat.ucdavis.edu/) for more information on the project and to access marker-assisted selection protocols for wheat.
Strawbreaker foot rot or eyespot (caused by Tapesia yallundae and Tapesia acuformis) is a significant yield-limiting disease in wheat-growing regions of the U.S. Pacific Northwest (northeastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and northern Idaho). The most effective source of genetic resistance to eyespot is Pch1, a gene derived from one of wheat’s wild relatives, Aegilops ventricosa. Pch1 was introduced to breeding germplasm through the breeding line VPM-1 and an endopeptidase isozyme marker (Ep-D1b), tightly linked to Pch1, has been used to track resistance in breeding programs. Because a DNA-based marker would be more desirable for indirect selection, an AFLP-derived microsatellite marker, XustSSR2001, was developed by others and reported to be linked to Pch1. Unfortunately, we have found that XustSSR2001 does not show the tight linkage required for marker-assisted selection. Fortunately, we have recently completed a project where we identified new DNA-based markers that were completely linked to Pch1. These markers should be useful for the indirect selection of Pch1 in breeding material.
Leonard, J.M., C.J.W. Watson, A. Carter, J. Hansen, R.S. Zemetra, D.K. Santra, K.G. Campbell, and O. Riera-Lizarazu. 2008. Identification of a candidate gene for the wheat endopeptidase Ep-D1 locus and two other STS markers linked to the eyespot resistance gene Pch1. Theor. Appl. Genet. 116:261-270.
