Description

Varietal development and preservation are critical components to the agricultural seed industry and trade. A new crop variety may take a decade to produce and protecting the long-term investments of breeders helps encourage future varietal research. Once a variety is approved under the Plant Variety Protection Act and released for farm use, it is essential to preserve the integrity of seed stock through annual certification. In the past, identifying and certifying crop varieties relied on visual inspections of physical traits defined for each variety. However, varietal development is becoming increasingly complex with novel traits that may not manifest physically, making certification based on visual attributes less effective. Molecular biomarkers have become important biotechnological tools for differentiating an ever-increasing number of varieties developed from modern breeding technologies.

NAGC’s CropFiler variety identification testing is conducted using specific DNA simple sequence repeats (SSRs) panels. Seed DNA is extracted from each sample and then subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the specific SSR panels for barley, chickpea, durum, field pea, or wheat. The PCR products are then subjected to capillary electrophoresis (CE) and a sample profile is obtained. The sample profile is used to search NAGC’s CropFiler database to assign a variety to the sample.

NAGC’s current list of durum controls that have been profiled with DurumFiler are listed below. If a control isn’t listed, feel free to reach out to us at 701.239.1451 to discuss profiling a new control (it’s free!).

This project was funded by the North Dakota Department of Agriculture Bioscience Innovative Grant.