The wheat Diverse MAGIC platform: Community Access to Resources, Protocols and Tools

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ContextWheat is the UK's most important crop, covering 1.6 million hectares and with an annual harvest worth £1.6 billion. Globally, demand for wheat is rising rapidly: it is estimated that by 2050, yield must rise by 60%. The best way to achieve gains in the key wheat breeding targets is to develop improved varieties. The ongoing revolution in genetic and molecular tools for wheat breeding is poised to deliver step changes in wheat genetic gain. However, comparatively little investment has been focused on the development of suitable biological resources to best take advantage of these tools. This project builds on previous publicly-funded investment in a state-of-the-art wheat biological platform: the Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) population (termed, 'Diverse MAGIC'). Created over four years by inter-crossing 16 UK wheat varieties over multiple generations, the resulting population of over 600 lines represents a unique resource within the UK and worldwide. By capturing large amounts of genetic variation (from the 16 parents) and efficiently reshuffling these over multiple generations of crossing, the population is well placed to serve as a central resource for a broad spectrum of the UK wheat bioscience community.Aims and objectivesThis project brings together expertise from the plant and animal MAGIC sectors, to develop Diverse MAGIC into an integrated community platform for wheat genetics and breeding. This will be achieved by developing Diverse MAGIC resources, tools and community engagement programs that will enable effective use of Diverse MAGIC within the UK community. Specifically, it will:1) Enlarge the Diverse MAGIC population to 800 lines.2) Provide access to Diverse MAGIC seed.3) Establish a catalogue of genetic and phenotypic variation present in the 16 MAGIC parents.4) Provide baseline field phenotype and high-density genotype data on the whole population.5) Develop bioinformatic and software tools tailored to wheat MAGIC.6) Provide dissemination and training events to promote uptake of MAGIC in wheat.7) Establish and promote Diverse MAGIC 'community phenotyping' events.8) Collate the wheat MAGIC resources generated, and make freely accessible via the project website.Applications and benefitsThe biological and supporting resources generated by this project will stimulate new research, amplify output from existing wheat programs, and aid the translation of scientific discoveries to breeders, farmers and processors. The Diverse MAGIC resource complements existing UK wheat resources for gene validation, and will help promote collaborative research within the crop genetics sector.