Grain Germplasm Genomics

Valorizing Genetic Diversity Stored in Genebanks for Cereal Improvement

The systematic characterization and utilization of naturally occurring genetic variation has become an important approach in crop plant genome research and breeding.

The rapid progress in high-throughput technologies offers exciting tools for trait discovery, and gives plant breeders access to agronomically valuable alleles that have been left behind during the bottlenecks of domestication.

We aim to identify and validate genes with agricultural relevance. To this purpose, genetic and genomic resources are developed and utilized, with special focus on barley (Hordeum vulgare) and wheat (Triticum aestivum). This talk will demonstrate the potential of new approaches and give examples of our activities with regard to systematically utilizing plant genetic resources stored in genebanks. Examples for population development, genome-wide association studies and allele mining are given.