The South African wheat industry has three diverse geographical production regions which poses unique challenges to yield improvement. Yield is a complex trait of wheat controlled by the interaction of multiple gene clusters and is significantly influenced by environmental factors. Several strategies have been proposed worldwide to sustainably increase wheat production. A number of studies have identified significant genes/QTL with known yield component trait function. The accumulation of these naturally occurring favourable alleles in genotypes is relatively unexploited. Parts of this project were accepted as an aligned contributing project (AP06) of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP). The aim of this study is to identify germplasm with higher-yielding genetic potential by taking a holistic whole plant approach (from roots to kernels), while using targeted marker assisted selection for yield component related genes. The favourable alleles of certain target yield component genes related to kernel size, kernel weight, grain number (GN), tiller number and overall contribution to better thousand kernel weight (TKW) were identified from literature. Initially, 35 different molecular markers associated to 17 different yield component genes were screened on a sub-set of lines. Three-hundred and three genotypes from 19 different international nurseries were screened. Three representative sets of lines adapted to the specific conditions of the Western Cape, the irrigation areas, and the Free State production regions of South Africa were also genotyped as a point of reference. Favourable allele frequency distribution, haplotype comparisons and generic statistical analyses were performed. Entries of the assembled panel yielded from 5.0-8.8 t/ha under the same supplementary irrigation conditions at ARC-Small Grain, Bethlehem, South Africa. This panel out-yielded the local cultivar checks by 30-50% within each nursery. The selected test entries yielded from 27% to 144% above the relevant nursery yield means. Favorable alleles of yield component genes TaGS-D1,TaGS5-3A, TACWI-4A, TaGW2-6A and TaGW2-6Bgave informative favorable haplotype variations. No strong correlations across all genotypes were observed between yields and the presence of different yield component genes. However, altered allele trends were observed in the different statistical yield groups. From the results it is clear that there are obvious trade-offs between certain favourable alleles for the different yield component genes in certain genotypes. The preliminary data suggest that different favourable allele combinations will be prevalent in material adapted to certain wheat production regions. The germplasm identified in this project will assist with developing higher-yield wheat cultivars for South Africa.