Institute of Plant Genomics and Systems Biology, PGSB, Environmental Health Center, Helmholtz Munich

The PGSB plant genomics group focuses on the analysis of plant genomes, using bioinformatic techniques. Our mission is to develop options for a sustainable use of plants and understand how climate change impacts crops, food security and human health.

Haferfeld, Aufnahme vom Juli 2022, Fotograf Manuel Spannagl

The Plant Genome and Systems biology group has been involved in the development and implementation of plant genome oriented bioinformatics since the inception of the field. The group has provided essential contributions to the analysis of the milestone Arabidopsis thaliana genome, the first published plant genome. It has additionally led and/or contributed to other well studied plant genomes, ranging from classical model systems to crops with large and complex genomes (maize, rice, tomato, Medicago, Brachypodium, sorghum, barley, wheat, rye and oat) in both German and international collaborations.

The yield of many of our major food crops is threatened by a changing climate and pronounced periods of drought and heat. On the other hand, overall harvest needs to be increased due to the growing world population. Cereal genomics holds a key for the targeted and accelerated development of new and climate adapted crop varieties.

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.

smart agriculture concept with machine, deep learning, neural network technology, the artificial intelligence network in smart farm to disrupt

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.

Researchers from Helmholtz Munich, Hopsteiner and Carlsberg Research Laboratory have unveiled the most detailed genetic map of hops ever created – a major step toward protecting one of beer’s key ingredients from the growing impacts of climate…

Oat is an important crop with many health benefits and diverse applications. Researchers from Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the Leibniz-Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) have decoded the…

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A new study, led by Helmholtz Munich and the Earlham Institute as part of a global collaboration, has generated the first wheat pan-transcriptome – a comprehensive map of gene activity across multiple wheat varieties.

How researchers from Helmholtz Munich are making wheat, oats, barley, and co. fit for the future.

Ensuring the sustainability of oat cultivation as a significant future food source holds great promises for both human health and the climate. Dr. Nadia Kamal, a researcher at the Plant Genome and Systems Biology Group at Helmholtz Munich, has been…

The foundations for resistant varieties are being developed through genome-assisted breeding and decoding of the complex hop genome as part of the new research project PANHOP at Helmholtz Munich. These varieties should counteract the effects of…

Klaus Mayer (PGSB, left) and Michael Schloter (COMI, right)

Klaus Mayer (Director Research Unit Plant Genome and Systems Biology, PGSB) and Michael Schloter (Director Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analysis, COMI) are among the 7,000 scientists most cited in 2022. That's according the new list from…

The oat genome unlocks the unique health benefits of oats

Researchers have succeeded in sequencing and characterizing the entire genome of oat. Compared to other cereals and humans, the oat genome architecture is very complex. Scientists from Helmholtz Munich, Lund University and the ScanOats network…

In a landmark discovery for global wheat production, Helmholtz Zentrum München together with an international research team has sequenced the genomes for 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programs around the world, enabling scientists and…

German researchers decoded the European maize genome. In comparison to North American maize lines, they discovered variations that underlie phenotypic differences and may also contribute to the heterosis effect. A better understanding of the effect…

Hu, B. ; Hänsch, R. ; Grunau, K. ; Hohtanz, L. ; Kucklick, M. ; Grünig, N. ; Haensch, V.G. ; Liu, R. ; Peng, T. ; Wiebicke, M. ; Fard, I.S. ; Messerer, M. ; Gädeke, F. ; Stradal, T.E.B. ; Milatz, M. ; Hertweck, C. ; Engelmann, S. ; Rennenberg, H. ; Oliphant, K.D.

Symbiotic peptides modulate rhizobial physiology without terminal differentiation.

Varshney, R.K. ; Garg, V. ; Spannagl, M. ; Dreisigacker, S.

Genomics for next-generation wheat breeding.

Kale, S.M. ; Gundlach, H. ; Gericke, O. ; Kamal, N. ; Almeida, A. ; Pitra, N. ; Price, N. ; Haberer, G. ; Lux, T. ; Krsticevic, F. ; Kemp, O. ; Bang, L.d. ; Himmelbach, A. ; Padmarasu, S. ; Rabanus-Wallace, M. ; Hořáková, L. ; Bačovský, V. ; Nielsen, K. ; Bjarnholt, N. ; Mićić, N. ; Kruse-Andersen, I. ; Møller, B.L. ; Janfelt, C. ; Skadhauge, B. ; Matthews, P.D. ; Mayer, K.F.X. ; Stein, N. ; Mascher, M. ; Spannagl, M. ; Feiner, A. ; Braumann, I.

Extensive variation between chromosomes of North American and European hop.

Brightly, W.H. ; Fjellheim, S. ; Lux, T. ; Mullinger, M.D. ; Osborne, C.P. ; Preston, J.C. ; Sandve, S.R. ; Vorontsova, M.S. ; Dunning, L.T.

Cold origins limit the establishment of northern temperate plants in the Southern Hemisphere.

Wang, J. ; Li, L. ; Li, C. ; Reynolds, M. ; Spannagl, M. ; Schnitzler, J.-P. ; Zhao, Y. ; Ma, Z. ; Xu, J. ; Mao, X. ; Jing, R.

TaWAK5 perceives OGs to activate drought responses in wheat.

Tao, X.Y. ; Tan, C. ; Liu, Y. ; Wang, Y. ; Raza, A. ; He, J. ; Wang, L. ; Xia, K. ; Yan, Y. ; Liao, S. ; Jiang, W. ; Qu, Y. ; Xu, B. ; Zhou, Y. ; Yang, X. ; Roy, S. ; Denton, M. ; Tucker, M. ; Able, J. ; Gilliham, M. ; Langridge, P. ; Hu, H.W. ; He, J.Z. ; Zhao, C. ; Zhou, M. ; Mir, R.R. ; Chitikineni, A. ; Li, C. ; Zhang, P. ; Trethowan, R. ; Ding, Y. ; Zhang, J. ; Franks, P. ; Wu, Q. ; Ye, L. ; Wang, Y. ; Wu, F. ; Zhang, G. ; Cai, S. ; Shen, Q. ; Jiang, H. ; Chen, G. ; Zhou, Y. ; Song, C. ; Zhang, Y. ; Ma, W. ; Li, X. ; Guo, W. ; Zeng, J. ; He, X. ; Liu, W. ; Feng, X. ; Zhang, R. ; Li, G. ; Cao, X. ; Liu, S. ; Liu, Q. ; Chen, J. ; Zhang, X. ; Liu, L. ; Zeng, F. ; Deng, F. ; Qin, Y. ; Zhu, X. ; Shabala, S. ; Tee, E.E. ; Schnurbusch, T. ; Mascher, M. ; Wu, H. ; Spannagl, M. ; Xin, M. ; Gou, J. ; Brar, G. ; Xue, D. ; Wang, W. ; Reynolds, M. ; Zhao, Y. ; Liu, Z. ; Krugman, T. ; Sakata, Y. ; Yee, S. ; Chan, K. ; Pogson, B. ; Zhang, Y. ; Marchant, D.B. ; Siddique, K.H.M. ; Fang, X. ; Chen, A. ; Henry, R. ; Boden, S.A. ; Varshney, R.K. ; Xu, S.C. ; Xu, X. ; Chen, Z.H.

The potential of wheat spatial omics.

Fenn, A. ; Correia de Lemos, S.M. ; Lahaye, T. ; Becker, C. ; Hückelhoven, R. ; Kamal, N.

Shaping immunity: Genetic diversity as a key resource for crop protection.

Halstead-Nussloch, G. ; Okada, M. ; Haberer, G. ; Lux, T. ; Islam, A.S.M.F. ; Hatakeyama, M. ; Briskine, R. ; White, B. ; Hall, A. ; Pozniak, C. ; Spannagl, M. ; Paape, T. ; Shimizu, K.K.

Purifying selection on deleterious variants affected by the combination of subgenomes and gene expression in bread wheat.

Heuermann, M.C. ; Barros, P. ; Beier, S. ; Gundlach, H. ; Alvarez-Jarreta, J. ; Hassani-Pak, K. ; König, P. ; Fiebig, A. ; Godec, T. ; Gruden, K. ; Nolte, N. ; Petek, M. ; Scholz, U. ; Zagorščak, M. ; Vandepoele, K. ; Van Bel, M.

White paper: Standards for handling and analyzing plant pan-genomes.

Huang, S. ; Messerer, M. ; Müller, H.M. ; Scherzer, S. ; Roelfsema, M.R.G. ; Weiste, C. ; Krischke, M. ; Korte, P. ; Mayer, K.F.X. ; Ache, P. ; Hedrich, R.

Under salt stress, quinoa stomatal guard cells control transpiration in an ABA-primed manner.

Plant Genome and Systems Biology

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Plant Genome Analysis

Cereal Genomics and Human Health

Plant Systems Biology

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Decoding the Hop Genome to Help Protect the Future of Beer in a Warming World

Decoding Oat Diversity for a Climate-Resilient Future

New Wheat Diversity Discovery Could Help Secure Global Food Supplies

Staple Foods With Reasons for Concern

ERC Grant for RESIST: Drought Stress Resistance in Oat for a Changing Climate

New Hope for Bavarian Hop Cultivation: PANHOP Project Aims to Breed Resistant Varieties

EHC researchers Klaus Mayer and Michael Schloter among the world's most cited scientists

The Oat Genome Unlocks the Unique Health Benefits of Oats

First Genomic Atlas for Global Wheat Improvement

European and American Maize: Same Same, but Different

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