description
- Genetic markers are used to identify differences in the genetic make-up of individuals in large populations. In crop plants genetic markers are very important for breeding improved crops because they can be used to trace the contributions of parents to their offspring. This enable breeders to identify quickly regions of DNA that confer desirable traits and breed these regions into lines, while eliminating undesired regions. Crop breeding requires many plants to be screened for their genetic make-up over several years. The more genetic markers that are used the more precise breeding can be made, reducing the time and uncertainty in the process. Achieving improved efficiency and predictability in plant breeding is centrally important for securing future supplies of key crops such as wheat. We aim to use our expertise in wheat genomics and next-generation sequencing to develop high- throughput genotyping for wheat in collaboration with UK wheat breeders.