To help address these challenges, researchers from Helmholtz Munich, Hopsteiner and Carlsberg Research Laboratory have created the most comprehensive genetic map of hops to date. The study provides new insight into the crop’s genetic complexity and lays the groundwork for breeding hop varieties that are more resilient to climate stress while improving brewing quality, aroma and flavour.

“Challenges like climate change are bigger than any one company,” said Birgitte Skadhauge, Vice President and Head of the Carlsberg Research Laboratory. “By sharing our hop genome research in Nature Communications, we are giving scientists and breeders everywhere tools to protect crops, to innovate, and to help secure the future of beer.”

Decoding the Complex Genetics of Hops

Hops are genetically more complex than their delicate flowers might suggest. The hop genome is large – comparable in size to the human genome – and highly repetitive. Its complexity is further increased by an uncommon reproductive system among flowering plants: male and female flowers grow on separate plants, but only the female plants produce the cones prized by brewers.

In the current study, the researchers generated a high-resolution, chromosome-level of a commercially important hop variety. Like humans, hops carry two versions of each chromosome in every cell, one inherited from each parent. The new reference genome captures both versions in detail, enabling scientists to distinguish between different genetic lineages within the same plant.

This is particularly important because modern hop breeding often combines European and North American genetic backgrounds to improve brewing performance. The new genomic map makes it possible to see how these lineages are organized in the DNA and how they contribute to traits relevant for cultivation, resilience and flavour. 

Put simply, the team has created a detailed “DNA roadmap” of hops, showing where important traits are located in the genome and how they are inherited across generations.

“Hops are genetically far more complex than most people realize, and that complexity has limited how quickly we can improve them,” said Ilka Braumann, Head of Hop Development at the Carlsberg Research Laboratory. “By separating the European and North American lineages in the genome, we can now see how different traits come together, giving us a much clearer path to developing better, more resilient hop varieties.”

New Perspectives for Hop Research and Cultivation

The publication of a high‑quality hop genome has implications far beyond a single research group. With these data now available, breeding and research efforts can move from trial‑and‑error approaches to more targeted, knowledge‑based strategies.

That opens the door to:

• Climate-resilient hops: Improved tolerance to heat, drought and changing environmental conditions, helping stabilise yields and protect farmers’ livelihoods.
• New flavours and aromas: A deeper understanding of the genetic basis of flavour‑relevant compounds could enable the development of entirely new sensory profiles.
• Faster innovation: Genomic insight can significantly shorten breeding timelines that previously took more than a decade.
• More sustainable agriculture: Hop varieties that perform reliably with fewer inputs, supporting environmentally responsible production systems.

Together, these advances provide a roadmap for the future of hop breeding – supporting both the long‑term availability of beer and the diversity of flavours enjoyed by consumers.

Original Publication

Kale et al., 2026: Extensive variation between chromosomes of North American andEuropean hop. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-72379-8

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, TUM, and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), together with international partners, have now decoded the pan-genome of 33 oat lines. A pan-genome represents the total genetic diversity across the lines studied - it includes not only genes found in all plants but also those present in only some. The team’s findings were published in Nature.

Understanding and Using Genetic Diversity

The team sequenced and analyzed genomes from oat lines originating in many regions around the world. According to the researchers, the pan-genome thus captures a large share of global oat genetic diversity. “Our results lay a foundation that will help us identify which genes are important for yield, climate adaptation, and plant health,” says Nadia Kamal, a former Helmholtz Munich researcher and now Professor of Computational Plant Biology at TUM.

They examined 26 cultivated varieties - including landraces and old breeding lines - as well as several wild lines. Including landraces and wild lines was crucial because modern breeding has focused primarily on yield - sometimes at the expense of other traits that could prove advantageous going forward. Such traits may have persisted in older and wild germplasm, potentially making plants more tolerant to drought or disease.

A Directory of Gene Activity

The research team investigated how thousands of genes are active across different oat tissues and lines, revealing oats’ notable capacity for adaptation and resilience. Differences in gene-expression patterns often mirrored the geographic origins of the lines - an indication that oat populations have adapted to distinct environments through fine-tuned gene regulation. Building on this, the researchers created a pan-transcriptome for 23 of the lines included in the pan-genome - effectively a directory of gene activity. “The combination of the pangenome and pantranscriptome opens up new possibilities for breeding oat lines that are both high-yielding and adapted to different climatic conditions,” says Prof. Manuel Spannagl from Helmholtz Munich, a co-leader of the study.

“Although oats make up a smaller share of the market than wheat, rice, or corn, it’s important not to overlook them in discussions of climate-resilient grains,” Kamal adds. “A broad range of foods benefits our health - and it also helps buffer against potential crop failures in other species.”
 

Original Publication

Avni et al., 2025: A pangenome and pantranscriptome of hexaploid oat. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09676-7

Wheat is the most widely cultivated crop in the world, with over 215 million hectares grown annually. To meet the demands of a growing global population, plant breeders face the challenge of increasing wheat production by an estimated 60 per cent within the next 40 years.

The wheat pan-transcriptome offers a powerful tool to help meet this challenge. It will enable plant breeders to accelerate yield improvements and develop more resilient wheat varieties – better equipped to cope with rising temperatures, water shortages, and poor soil quality. Importantly, this can be done without increasing reliance on fertilisers, which are linked to biodiversity loss and pollution.

“We’ve revealed layers of hidden diversity spanning our modern wheat variations. This diversity is likely to underpin the success of wheat over such a wide range of global environments,” said Dr. Rachel Rusholme-Pilcher, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the Earlham Institute and co-first author. “We discovered how groups of genes work together as regulatory networks to control gene expression. Our research allowed us to look at how these network connections differ between wheat varieties revealing new sources of genetic diversity that could be critical in boosting the resilience of wheat.”

Furthermore, this work has created an important resource for the worldwide wheat research community – a clear example of how national and international collaboration and new technologies can lead to scientific breakthroughs in global food security.

Much of the untapped genetic diversity may stem from how wheat has adapted to different environments over time, shaped by over 100 years of modern breeding and more than 10,000 years of cultivation.

“The new expression atlas allowed us to independently predict and compare the gene content of the wheat cultivars. We used those gene predictions together with the pan-transcriptome data to identify pronounced variation in the prolamin superfamily and immune-reactive proteins across cultivars,” said Dr. Manuel Spannagl, Deputy Group Leader in the Plant Genome and Systems Biology Group at Helmholtz Munich

Transcript isoform sequencing and de novo annotation was carried out by the Technical Genomics and Core Bioinformatics Groups at the Earlham Institute through the BBSRC-funded National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in Transformative Genomics. 

“This work demonstrates the power of technology to reveal novel biology, in this case hidden functional diversity which had not been documented before. Wheat pangenomics resources are growing rapidly with more diversity yet to be discovered,” said Dr. Karim Gharbi, Head of Technical Genomics at the Earlham Institute.

Original Publication

White et al., 2025: De Novo Annotation Reveals Transcriptomic Complexity Across the Hexaploid Wheat Pan-Genome. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64046-1

Funding acknowledgement

The study was supported by the BBSRC-funded Decoding Biodiversity research programme and National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in Transformative Genomics at the Earlham Institute, as well as the BBSRC cross-institute Delivering Sustainable Wheat programme. 

The study was conducted as part of the International 10+ Wheat Genome Project, and involved a global collaboration of scientists from countries including Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.

With funding from the European Research Council (ERC), the new project RESIST will study drought resistance in oats. Drought is one of the most impactful environmental factors constraining crop yields, causing substantial economic loss, and increasing food insecurity, especially as the global population continues to grow. To preserve agricultural productivity, the development of crops with both high yields and drought resistance is indispensable. Oats hold promise as a potential staple food crop, offering a much-needed diversification in our food sources. However, oats are vulnerable to drought, and advancements in breeding drought-resistant varieties, although urgently required, have been constrained so far by limited genomic resources.

RESIST will undertake the challenging and high-priority endeavor of deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying drought stress resistance in oats, offering significant solutions to ensure robust yields of this emerging, healthy, and versatile crop. By establishing the essential groundwork, RESIST lays the cornerstone for creating improved oat varieties that thrive in drought conditions, securing oat yields as a sustainable source of a profoundly nourishing, healthy, and protein-rich plant-based diet for the rising global population.

Helmholtz Munich Pioneers Oat Research

Oats have an extensive and intricate genome, and the full sequencing was accomplished last year in an international effort under the key involvement of Dr. Manuel Spannagl and Dr. Nadia Kamal and the team at the Plant Genome and Systems Biology Group at Helmholtz Munich (Kamal et. al 2022, Nature).

Dr. Florian Herrmann, the Bavarian state minister for federal affairs and media, emphasized the importance of the project during the presentation of the funding certificate: "Bavaria is renowned as the top region for beer and hops! Both stand for tradition, diverse enjoyment, and the highest quality worldwide. In order to continue serving the international market in the future, Bavarian hop farmers rely on varieties that can better withstand rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall. The PANHOP project aims to examine selected hop varieties of particular relevance and thus pave the way for the future. My wishes of success go to the research partners, and I am thankful to the Bavarian Research Foundation for the support of these innovative efforts.”

"The PANHOP project is a perfect example of what the Bavarian Research Foundation is intended to promote according to its legal mandate: The research project combines scientific excellence with an entrepreneurial pioneering spirit to find a solution to the challenges posed by climate change and environmental influences with the use of advanced technologies. Moreover, the project has a practical application in a traditional Bavarian industry," added Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. (NAS RA) Arndt Bode, president of the Bavarian Research Foundation.

An important goal of the PANHOP project is the utilization of genome-assisted breeding, which has already achieved significant success in many other crops. The project aims to generate and compare complete genome sequences of selected hop varieties, including those that are especially important for cultivation in Bavaria and thereby identify genes responsible for resistance against pests and environmental influences such as drought. At the same time, genes with an important role in the creation of aroma will be examined, as well.

" The insights we gain will be crucial for selecting and improving our Bavarian hop varieties in a targeted manner," emphasizes Dr. Manuel Spannagl from Helmholtz Munich, leader of the PANHOP project. Together with Dr. Alexander Feiner from the company Simon H. Steiner, Hopfen, GmbH (Hopsteiner) in Mainburg, they form the core team of the project. The Hoppebräu GmbH is also involved as an associated partner.

The PANHOP project brings new hope for Bavarian hop cultivation by establishing a scientifically based foundation for the development of resistant varieties. Thereby challenges posed by climate change and the impacts of environmental influences on hop cultivation will be effectively tackled.

Congratulations!

The full list can be found under https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/.

Find more informations about the work of the two scientists here:

Klaus Mayer (PGSB) 
Michael Schloter (COMI) 

Tracking down the health benefits of oats

Knowing the genome sequence allows us to better understand which genes are responsible for which traits. In the case of oats, the researchers were particularly interested in finding out why they trigger fewer allergies and intolerances compared to cereals such as wheat or rye. They discovered that oats have fewer of the proteins that correspond to gluten in wheat. Since these proteins are directly related to celiac disease and wheat intolerances, oats lead to fewer intolerances in humans. "This allowed us to confirm on a genomic level that oats in their pure form are suitable for a gluten-free diet," says Nadia Kamal of Helmholtz Munich. Compared to other cereals, oats also contain a much higher proportion of so-called beta-glucans. These dietary fibers reduce cholesterol in the blood and have a positive influence on people with metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Thanks to their sequencing effort, the researchers now know which genes are responsible for the health-promoting beta-glucans. 

New potential for breeding

Oats are not only interesting because of their health benefits; their cultivation also requires fewer treatments with insecticides, fungicides or fertilizers compared to other cereals. Thanks to the new insights into the oat genome, breeding and cultivation of more nutritious and sustainable oats can now be accelerated. "We have created the potential for targeted breeding," says Nick Sirijovski from the Lund University and ScanOats, "since we are now able to tell which oat varieties are compatible with another. At this point, we can combine traits for an even more favorable health profile, higher yields, better resistance to parasites and drought, and most importantly, in preparation for climate change." Since oats produce high yields even on marginal soils and have an overall smaller environmental footprint than wheat, these aspects are particularly exciting for researchers in light of future challenges in providing nutritious plant-based alternative foods for a growing global population in a sustainable way.

About the people

Dr. Manuel Spannagl is a scientist at the Environmental Health Center at Helmholtz Munich and head of the study on the German side. In his team, Dr. Nadia Kamal collaborated on the study as first author. Dr. Nick Sirijovski from the Lund University and the ScanOats network led the sequencing project in Sweden.