Plant & Animal Genomes XIV Conference

January 14-18, 2006
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Towards A Physical Map Of The Barley Genome: A European Initiative In An International Context

Nils Stein¹ , Lothar Altschmied¹ , Patrick Schweizer¹ , Ulrich Wobus¹ , Andreas Graner¹ , Robbie Waugh² , David Leader² , Luke Ramsay² , David Marshall² , Alan Schulman³ , Peter Langridge⁴ , Hans-Werner Mewes⁵ , Klaus Mayer⁶

¹  IPK-Gatersleben, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany

²  SCRI, Dundee, DD2 5DA, Scotland

³  MTT Agrifood Research Finland and University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland

⁴  Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG), University of Adelaide, Australia

⁵  TU-München, 85354 Freising, Germany

⁶  GSF, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany

To meet the needs of a growing world population and to support the development of a far-sighted bio-based economy, European agriculture has to continue its efforts in developing more effective strategies for agricultural innovation including alternative uses and novel products from existing crop plants. In addition, a sustainable agriculture requires breeding for genetically tailored cultivars to reduce agrochemical inputs and to adapt crop plants to a changing environment. Barley ranks number five in world crop production (harvested area) with the European Community producing over 60 % of the world harvest (FAOSTAT 2004). Thus, any investment into this crop species will entail a major impact on European agriculture. However, further progress in breeding will critically depend on the knowledge of genes and on the systematic exploitation of their allelic diversity. A combination of genetic and genomic approaches will allow the elucidation of the genetic basis of major agronomic traits and facilitate a fundamental understanding of the underlying metabolic and developmental processes. We propose to generate a comprehensive physical map of the barley genome as a foundation for high-throughput gene/trait isolation (and ultimately genome sequencing). We argue that a good physical map will provide a platform for investigation into numerous molecular and cellular processes including those underlying quality, yield, and disease resistance. We will present a summary of the status of European barley genomics activities, the steps we have taken towards barley physical map development, and how these are coordinated at local, national and international scales.