Dr Sarah Collier

As a member of the Simon Griffiths group Sarah is am responsible for generating Near Isogenic Lines (NILs) for QTL traits and genes selected by the by the committee.

Selected lines are backcrossed several times and the trait selected using KASP markers, before finally generating homozygous siblings within the region of interest.

These lines are then grown in the field to validate the QTL trait. Those lines which perform well in the field and deemed to have the potential to add value are put into Breeders Toolkit with the aim to channel new genes and alleles discovered in DFW and previous wheat programme outputs, into commercial wheat breeding.

Sarah’s work is part of part of work package three; ‘Germplasm’, within Designing Future Wheat.