Title: Optimization of crossing and selection strategies in improving micronutrient concentrations in HarvestPlus crops

Period: November 2005 to December 2007

Rational: Breeding with the objective to develop varieties combining the best nutritional and agronomic traits is key to fulfill the HarvestPlus goal to reduc e micronutrient malnutrition. Conventional plant breeding largely depends on phenotypic selection and breeder's experience. Along with the fast development in molecular biology and biotechnology, a large amount of biological data is available for genetic studies of important breeding traits including Fe and Zn concentrations, and provitamin-A content in plants, which in turn allows the conduct of genotypic selection in the breeding process. However, gene information has not been effectively used in crop improvement due to the lack of appropriate tools. QuLine, developed by CIMMYT and shared by CIMMYT and UQ, is a genetics and breeding simulation tool that can integrate various genes with multiple alleles operating within epistatic networks and differentially interacting with the environment interaction, and predict the outcomes from a specific cross following the application of a real selection scheme. It has been used to compare two selection strategies in CIMMYT's Wheat Breeding Program, to study the effects on selection of dominance and epistasis, to predict cross performance using known gene information, and to investigate the efficient use of marker-assisted selection in pyramiding multiple genes in wheat breeding etc . The QuLine tool therefore has the potential to provide a bridge between vast amounts of biological data and breeder's queries on optimizing selection gain and efficiency.

http://www.harvestplus.org