Claims
- 1. A method for identifying alleles associated with agronomic fitness of crop plants comprising:
- a) selecting a sample of current-day elite lines of a given crop to form an elite population;
- b) selecting the predominant and earliest known ancestral lines of said elite lines by considering the pedigrees of said elite lines;
- c) conducting a genetic marker survey to determine the genotype of said elite lines and said ancestral lines;
- d) using the pedigrees of said elite lines and genotypes of said ancestral lines to calculate the probability of each elite line inheriting each allele from said ancestral lines;
- e) calculating the expected allele frequency of each allele within said elite population by averaging the probabilities calculated in step d) for each elite line;
- f) calculating the observed allele frequency within said elite population;
- g) comparing said observed allele frequency with said expected allele frequency for each said allele in said elite population to identify alleles at each locus that have been inherited more frequently than expected; and
- h) producing crop plants with superior agronomic fitness;
- such that new crop plants with superior agronomic fitness can be efficiently identified with said genetic markers that are diagnostic of said alleles that have been inherited more frequently than expected.
- 2. A method of claim 1 wherein said crop plants are selected from the group consisting of barley, chickpea, cowpea, field beans, field peas, millet, oats, peanut, potato, rice, sesame, soybean, tobacco, tomato, wheat, alfalfa, corn, pearl millet, rye, sugar beet, sugarcane, and sunflower.
- 3. A method of claim 1 wherein said crop plant is corn.
- 4. A method of claim 3, wherein in step c) the genetic marker is selected from the group consisting of UMC89, UMC85, BNL5.46, UMC120, UMC67, UMC80, UMC51, UMC122, UMC10, BNL14.07, UMC26, and UMC110 is used to conduct said genetic marker survey.
- 5. A method for breeding agronomically superior corn plants, comprising:
- a) identifying the genotype of a number of corn lines by conducting a genetic marker survey using a genetic marker selected from the group consisting of UMC89, UMC85, BNL5.46, UMC120, UMC67, UMC80, UMC51, UMC122, UMC10, BNL14.07, UMC26, and UMC110;
- b) selecting parent corn lines identified in step (a) that, when crossed, produce an ideal segregant containing more favorable alleles than either parent; and
- c) breeding the selected parent corn lines of step (b) wherein corn plants with superior agronomic fitness are produced.
- 6. A method of claim 1 wherein step g) is performed using a chi-squared test for the statistical significance of the deviation of observed allele frequency from expected allele frequency.
- 7. A method of claim 1 wherein step g) is performed by computing the distribution of possible allele counts by the generalized binomial distribution, and using said binomial distribution to compute a cumulative probability that provides a statistical measure of the significance of the deviation of observed allele frequency from expected allele frequency.
- 8. A method for breeding agronomically superior crop plants comprising:
- a) selecting a sample of current-day elite lines of a given crop to form an elite population;
- b) selecting the predominant and earliest known ancestral lines of said elite lines by considering the pedigrees of said elite lines;
- c) conducting a genetic marker survey to determine the genotype of said elite lines and said ancestral lines;
- d) using the pedigrees of said elite lines and genotypes of said ancestral lines to calculate the probability of each elite line inheriting each allele from said ancestral lines;
- e) calculating the expected allele frequency of each allele within said elite population by averaging the probabilities calculated in step d) for each elite line;
- f) calculating the observed allele frequency within said elite population;
- g) comparing said observed allele frequency with said expected allele frequency for each said allele in said elite population to identify alleles at each locus that have been inherited more frequently than expected;
- h) selecting parent elite lines comprising the alleles identified in step (g); and
- i) breeding the parent elite lines selected in step (h) such that agronomically superior crop plants are produced.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of application U.S. Ser. No. 08/097,349 filed Jul. 23, 1993 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,697, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Ser. No. 07/909,833 filed Jul. 7, 1992, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
5437697 |
Sebastian et al. |
Aug 1995 |
|
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
WO 8907647 |
Aug 1989 |
WOX |
Continuation in Parts (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
97349 |
Jul 1993 |
|
Parent |
909833 |
Jul 1992 |
|