Developing tools and resources for oat breeding

Oat research is directed at developing new oat varieties for the UK market and the oat genetics and genomics work is integrated with commercial plant breeding programmes. The overall approach is to make maximum use of the new sequencing and phenotyping technologies and integrate these with the development of novel populations for trait mapping and marker validation. In addition to bi-parental populations to derive reference diploid (A genome) and hexaploid winter oat maps, nested association mapping and multi-parent advanced generation intercross populations are also being developed. Key target traits relate to crop architecture, phenology and grain composition. In addition to map-based approaches, research also exploits the potential of comparative genomics (with Avena spp. and other Poaceae genomes) and extensive germplasm collections in order to identify and discover new sources of variation. IBERS oat researchers collaborate extensively with international consortia, particularly in terms of molecular marker development and multisite field trials, in order to maximise the value of the programme.