Development of a STS marker linked to a major locus controlling flour colour in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Flour colour is an important quality trait in the production of bread, noodles and other related end products. Current screening for flour colour in breeding programs requires several grams of flour to be milled. In order to screen large numbers of plants, a rapid PCR-based assay is required. We report here the conversion of a codominant AFLP marker linked to a major locus controlling flour colour in hexaploid wheat, to a sequence tagged site (STS) marker for use in marker-assisted selection (MAS). The two-allelic AFLP bands were cloned and sequenced to allow specific primers to be designed. The primers amplified bands of the expected size in the parental varieties and co-segregated with the original AFLP marker in the mapping population. The primers also amplified alleles of the expected size from the DNA of parental lines of two other related mapping populations. Cultivars that contributed to the pedigree of the original parent 'Schomburgk' used to generate the mapping population were also screened to determine the origin of the 'yellow' allele.