Molecular markers and QTL analysis for grain quality improvement in wheat

Molecular marker technology is playing an increasingly important role in the selection of wheat lines with improved quality attributes. This is due to the identification of molecular markers tightly linked to chromosome regions involved in the control of important quality characteristics such as dough properties, grain hardness, semolina and flour colour, grain protein content and starch composition, which strongly influence wheat end use, and its nutritional and market value. Marker assisted selection (MAS) will increase the efficiency of the breeding process, particularly when phenotyping requires laborious and time-consuming analyses, performed in advanced generations because of the relatively large amount of grain required. Moreover, the implementation of MAS allows the selection of individuals carrying the favourable alleles at the target loci, and also the pyramiding of favourable QTL alleles from different sources and for different traits. This notwithstanding, the progress obtained until now in applying MAS to quality characteristics has been slow compared to other traits.