Advancing Wheat Breeding through MAS and Genomic Selection
By incorporating genetic markers associated with key traits, breeding programs can improve the efficiency and precision of developing new wheat varieties. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) integrates these markers into traditional breeding programs, ensuring that each new generation of wheat plants is optimized for both quality and productivity.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common type of genetic variation in wheat and serve as precise markers for important traits. In genomic selection, thousands of SNP markers spread across the wheat genome are analyzed together to predict the genetic potential of each plant. This approach allows breeders to evaluate multiple traits simultaneously with higher accuracy, even for complex traits controlled by many genes.