The TCAP FAC-WIN6 Panel: Germplasm, Data, and GWAS

The power of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) depends on the quantity and quality of germplasm, molecular markers, and phenotypic data. The TCAP FAC-WIN6 is an association mapping panel of 300 elite winter or facultative 6-row malting barley inbred lines.  The germplasm was developed by the Oregon State University and University of Minnesota breeding programs. The genotypic data (9,000 SNPs) for all lines are available online at the Triticeae Toolbox (T3), along with phenotypic data for over 50 trial-trait combinations. T3 provides visitors with in-browser data analysis, including histograms, clustering, and GWAS. To complement the public availability of marker and trait data for the TCAP FAC-WIN6, the germplasm will be released through the Journal of Plant Registrations and thus seed will be available through the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System. This panel should be a valuable tool for future cereal genetics research; collaborators have already assessed all or subsets of the panel in 20 trials across 6 countries. Key examples of marker information, field and malt quality phenotype distributions, GWAS results, and online analysis tools will be presented.