The use of high resolution melting (HRM) to map single nucleotide polymorphism markers linked to a covered smut resistance gene in barley

Using an established genetic map, a single gene conditioning covered smut resistance, Ruh.7H, was mapped to the telomere region of chromosome 7HS in an Alexis/ Sloop doubled haploid barley population. The closest marker to Ruh.7H, abg704 was 7.5 cM away. Thirteen loci on the distal end of 7HS with potential to contain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identiWed by applying a comparative genomics approach using rice sequence data. Of these, one locus produced polymorphic co-dominant bands of diVerent size while two further loci contained SNPs that were identiWed using the recently developed high resolution melting (HRM) technique. Two of these markers Xanked Ruh.7H with the proximal marker located 3.8 cM and the distal marker 2.7 cM away. This is the Wrst report on the application of the HRM technique to SNP detection and to rapid scoring of known cleaved ampliWed polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers in plants. This simple, precise post-PCR technique should Wnd widespread use in the Wne-mapping of genetic regions of interest in complex cereal and other plant genomes