Plant Genome and Systems Biology

Analysis of plant genomes: these efforts include structural and functional annotation of genes, transposable elements, transcribed regions and promotor regions as well as comparative genomics and structural genome analyses. The genomic resources generated hereby enable us to identify genes, traits, pathways and crop varieties that shed light into the evolution and domestication of our major crops and can be used for targeted breeding.

The large and complex genomes of wheat, barley, rye and oat encode unique properties that are critical for human health. This includes beneficial, nutritional properties such as beta-glucans in oats as well as immunopotential properties e.g. related to glutenins in wheat. We investigate the genes, molecular pathways and natural diversity in plant genomes related to these important traits and their impact on human health.

This research topic deals with the integration and interpretation of large and heterogenous plant genomic data. Multi-scale networks allow e.g. for the integration of transcriptomic and phenotypic data with genome sequence references. The results of this work can accelerate our understanding of molecular pathways and help improve crops and speed up breeding.