Genotyping Support Services for Molecular Breeding in Developing Countries

Molecular markers have been widely used in the studies of plant sciences including genetic diversity, genomic mapping and tagging the genes of interest for marker-assisted selections in crop breeding programs. However, molecular technologies are less accessible in developing countries than in developed countries due to the lack of suitable infrastructure to support genotyping laboratories, available funds and training opportunity. The Genotyping Support Service (GSS) at GCP was created to support breeding programs not only by collaborating with service providers worldwide but also by providing training for data analysis. Since 2007, GCP has launched 3 calls for research grant applications of GSS projects. A total of 174 applications have been received and 73 of them have been awarded as molecular genotyping projects with SSRs and SNPs as well as DArT markers. The awarded research projects have covered 14 crops from 25 countries with topics from genetic diversity studies to marker-assisted selections to improve crop plants for better yield in the drought-prone environments as well as for the resistance to diseases and insects.  GCP is currently transitioning the marker services from SSR to SNP. So far, 1000-2000 SNPs have been converted into KASPar system for SNP genotyping for 8 major crops of critical importance to developing countries. With available markers at IBP, the GCP will provide the developing country breeding programs with easier access to more convenient genotyping services to support molecular breeding schemes such as MAS, MABC, MARS, and GWS.