marker-assisted selection in wheat

52Marker-assisted selection – Current status and future perspectives in crops, livestock, forestry and fishSummaryThis chapter reviews the uptake of marker-assisted selection (MAS) in wheat in a Europeancontext. Although less intense than the scale of its application in maize, reflecting the factthat maize varieties are predominantly F 1 hybrids, the use of MAS in wheat has grown overthe last few years. This growth has been encouraged by an increase in the number of amenabletarget traits, but more significantly by a combination of technological improvements,particularly in the areas of DNA acquisition, laboratory management systems and integrationinto the breeding cycle, which together have served to reduce the per unit cost of eachdata point. Microsatellites (simple sequence repeats [SSRs]) are, and will likely remain forsome time, the marker of choice because of their flexibility and the knowledge base associatedwith them. Some current examples are provided of the use of MAS in a major UnitedKingdom commercial breeding programme.