GrainGenes: Tools and Content to Assist Breeders Improving Oat Quality

Abstract

GrainGenes is the USDA-ARS database and Web resource for wheat, barley, oat, rye, and their relatives. As a community Web hub and database for small grains, GrainGenes strives to provide resources for researchers, students, and plant breeders to improve traits such as quality, yield, and disease resistance. Quantitative trait loci (QTL), genes, and genetic maps for quality attributes in GrainGenes represent the historical approach to mapping genes for groat percentage, test weight, protein, fat, and β-glucan content in oat (Avena spp.). Genetic maps are viewable in CMap, the comparative mapping tool that enables researchers to take advantage of highly populated consensus maps to increase the marker density around their genes-of-interest. GrainGenes hosts over 50 genome browsers and is launching an effort for community curation, including the manually curated tracks with beta-glucan QTL and significant markers found via GWAS and cloned cellulose synthase-like AsClF6 alleles.