Genomic Characterization of the WGRC Collection and Wild Relative Introgression Germplasm

Project Summary:

The genebank of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center holds over 2,200 accessions of wild wheat relatives and 12,000 genetic stocks including introgression lines and mapping populations.  This vast resource can provide valuable raw material for the future of wheat improvement, but systematic and efficient approaches to unlocking this ‘genetic gold mine’ are needed.  We have previously implemented systematic genotyping of the wild wheat collection to 1) curate accessions and defined duplicates, 2) access overall genetic diversity and 3) defined optimized core sets of material with minimal number of accessions capturing a large amount of the total diversity.  To date this analysis has been completed for important portions of the collection including Ae. tauschii and the tetraploid AB genome species.  It is an important goal of the center to have a collection that is completely characterized genetically and well-defined core sets of material for targeted future work and germplasm development.

WGRC I/UCRC use core collections of wild relatives to develop introgression populations in adapted winter wheat cultivars. These populations are genotyped and being characterized by the WGRC I/UCRC teams for quality, disease resistance, phenology and development traits.