Key Trait Screening on Global Wheat Accessions Using KASP Genotyping Markers - a New Open Resource for the Wheat Breeding Community

Greater availability of high-throughput genotyping methods has lead to an explosion of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sequence data from plant genomes. This has enabled the discovery of large numbers of potential SNP markers for varietal improvement. Over the past five years, a collection of quantitative trait loci (QTL) related to yield (TaCwi-A1), biotic stress (Ug99) and abiotic stress (Dreb-B1) in wheat have been identified by the scientific community and converted into KASP SNP assays. Introgression of the traits linked to these markers into elite wheat varieties is vitally important for agricultural sustainability and population growth expectations.

Here we present the first genotyping data generated using a combination of the publically available wheat KASP SNP markers across a selection of wheat accessions. The wheat accessions analysed originate from Europe, USA, Australia and China and include varieties on the UK recommended list. SNP genotyping data was generated using multiple commercially available platforms with the aim to offer the wheat breeding community a direct comparison of the flexibility of KASP SNP markers across platforms. Different extraction protocols producing DNA varying in quality and quantity were also tested. This study provides results on informative markers that will help integrate existing important QTL traits into wheat breeding programs quickly and efficiently. The results are freely available online.