Centre of Plant Structural & Functional Genomics

Annotation: Fonio millet (Digitaria exilis) is an orphan African cereal crop with a great potential for dryland agriculture. High-quality genomic resources were established to facilitate fonio improvement through molecular breeding. Creation of a chromosome-scale reference assembly and deep re-sequencing of 183 cultivated and wild Digitaria accessions enabled insights into genetic diversity, population structure, and domestication. Picture describtion:a . . .

Annotation: Our Centre is not only a place of excellent fundamental research. We also aim in helping breeders with their tasks. One of our last activity spans into the field of drought tolerance in forage grasses. Modelling of future climate indicates that this trait will be one of the key characteristics necessary to mitigate the impacts of climate change (especially the increased frequencies of summer drought periods). In collaboration with . . .

Annotation:  Climate change calls for new methods and plant materials to breed crops adapted to new environmental conditions. High-yielding ryegrasses (Lolium spp.), which are the most commonly used grass species, suffer during abiotic stresses, but introgression of drought and heat tolerance from closely related fescues (Festuca spp.) offers an opportunity to develop superior Festulolium (Festuca × Lolium) hybrid cultivars. In the last three . . .