THE MASwheat PROJECT: BRINGING GENOMICS TO THE WHEAT FIELDS

¹ Department of Agronomy & Range Science. University of California, Davis. Davis, CA 95616.

² Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. University of Minnesota. 411 Borlaug Hall, St Paul, MN 55108-6026

³ USDA-ARS, and Departments of Agronomy and Plant Pathology. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-5506.

⁴ USDA-ARS and Department of Crop and Soil Sciences Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-6420.

⁵ Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND58105

⁶ Department of Soil and Crop Sciences. Colorado State University. C101 Plant Sciences. Fort Collins, CO 80526.

⁷ Department of Agronomy. Purdue University. 1150 Lilly Hall. West Lafayette, IN 47907-1150.

⁸ Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology. Montana State University, Bozeman. 406 Leon Johnson Hall. Bozeman, MT 59717-3150.

⁹ Department of Plant Breeding. Cornell University. 252 Emerson Hall. Ithaca, NY 14853-1902

¹⁰ Aberdeen Research and Extension Center. University of Idaho. 1693 South 2700 West. Aberdeen, ID 83210.

Wheat breeding in the US is carried out mainly by the public sector. Two years ago a group of 12 wheat research laboratories and public breeding programs initiated a national effort to implement Markers Assisted Selection (MAS) techniques in the breeding programs. The wheat molecular geneticists and breeders from this consortium are using existing or newly developed molecular markers to backcross 22 different resistance genes against fungi, viruses, and insect pests. Multiple genes are being "pyramided" into single varieties to obtain a more durable resistance. Members of this consortium are also backcrossing 21 alleles with beneficial effects on breadmaking and pasta quality. These valuable alleles are being backcrossed into approximately 100 cultivars and improved wheat lines belonging to 10 different market classes, and adapted to the main US production areas. During the first two years of this project more that 1200 MAS backcrosses were performed and most of the traits were advanced to the second backcross generation. Some programs have completed the targeted six generations of backcrossing for some genes and are initiating field trials of the improved germplasm. New molecular markers were developed for the traits used in the project resulting in 9 publications. The project public web site (http://maswheat.ucdavis.edu) provides complete MAS protocols, education materials, and contact information. The MASwheat project is an example of an initiative that has empowered breeders to accelerate the transfer of valuable genes into public cultivars using modern molecular technologies, transferring the value of genomic research to the field.