Plant & Animal Genome VI Conference

W99

A EUROPEAN UNION PERSPECTIVE

Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA,

A European Project (FAIR CT95-0003) was funded approximately 2 years ago to develop the enabling technologies and background information required to improve the quality of European barleys for malt and beer production by contempory genetical approaches. The project involves input from a combination of breeders, maltsters, genetecists, computer scientists and molecular biologists from a total of fourteen groups across Europe. It focusses on four main areas, germplasm development and evaluation, QTL-mapping of "quality" and disease resistance, PCR-based marker development and Bioinformatics. A summary of the results obtained to date and priorities for future application will be discussed.