Abstract
Over the years, molecular marker technology has become an integral part of any breading programme due to its advantages over conventional breeding programs including study of multiple genes, late expression of trait, seasonal and geographical considerations. An ideal molecular breeding programme involves selection of parental lines segregating for target traits, development of mapping population, genotyping of segregating population with molecular markers and phenotyping of the test units in appropriate environments. The phenotyping and genotyping data obtained are subjected to sophisticated algorithms to obtain phenotypic mean and to construct linkage map. Once the linkage map and mean are available, several advanced methodologies can be used to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL). QTLflanking markers are then used to transfer linked loci to improve the trait value of existing parental lines. All these analyses require understanding of different software at each step of the analysis as none of them are able to perform all these analyses at one go. The presently available software require researchers to manually prepare the required input data files for these software and do each analysis one by one, as they move from one software to the other. This process is highly time consuming, tiring and fraught with errors. To overcome these potential bottlenecks, iMAS project was initiated. iMAS is a single, unified computing and decision support platform to facilitate marker-aided selection and breeding through integration of a number of freely available open-source quality computing tools. The iMAS system frees the user from the painful, time-consuming and error-prone manual preparation of input data files required by these software by automating the whole process. The system comprises of six modules: Data Validation, Phenotyping, Linkage Map Building, QTL Analysis, Genome Display and MABC Sample Size. Salient features of the system are integration of different computing tools into one single platform, extensive but simple-to-use online decision guidelines and a manual which allows the user to use iMAS and interpret results correctly. Because of these features iMAS has also emerged as an excellent tool for teaching and training purposes and till date over 150 breeders have been trained in the use of iMAS system.