How genetic consensus mapping works

Genes can be mapped in several ways. We will always recommend the method most appropriate to the specific request and never suggest a more expensive method than necessary.

Genetic mapping looks at genes in the way they segregate in a crossing, studying the DNA markers of parents and progeny and looking for patterns to establish the order in which they occur in a chromosome.

Consensus mapping extends this concept to a multitude of crosses in the same organism. Interestingly, the order of DNA markers (and genes!) is not always the same in the accessions from the same species/organism, especially in the case of complex polyploid genomes like wheat.

This is a specialised analytic capacity, and we have produced genetic maps for many species. Thanks to DArTseq and our map construction and consensus mapping software, we are able to create tens of thousands of markers in each map. For wheat and brassica, for example, we have processed over 500 populations, mapping over 100,000 markers.

Mapping can be a laborious process, and full genomic sequencing has circumvented it to some extent. We believe, however, that mapping is still an important aspect of breeding and it is a service we can provide when it is beneficial.