Molecular Cereal Breeding

Our group develops and applies novel approaches for genetic analysis and molecular plant breeding. With expertise in molecular genetics, bioinformatics, quantitative genetics and plant breeding, we are active in technology development, genetic analysis, data management and analysis, and marker-assisted selection.

Major Research Themes

• Novel molecular marker technologies
• Novel strategies for using markers in genetic analysis and plant breeding
• Genetic analysis in wheat and barley
• Curation and analysis of molecular cereal breeding data
• Implementation of molecular markers in wheat and barley breeding

Research Programme Highlights

Our Multiplex-Ready™ technology provides reliable results and saves time and money in marker genotyping.

Our laboratory generates hundreds of thousands of molecular marker data points each year.

Our genetic analysis projects discover and map genes affecting agronomic traits, end-use quality traits, disease resistance and stress tolerance in wheat and barley.

In collaboration with breeding programs, we estimate the breeding values of specific genes, and deliver this knowledge to breeders via Cross Predictor software.

Our research is conducted within the Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre (MPBCRC), with financial support from the MPBCRC, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, the South Australian Premiers’ Science and Research Fund, ABB Grain Ltd and South Australian Grains Industry Trust. Our laboratory hosts marker implementation activities for the University of Adelaide barley breeding programme and the Australian Grain Technologies wheat breeding program. We collaborate closely with other MPBCRC research groups, with the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and with other research groups in Australia and internationally.

Project Leaders

Diane Mather, Ken Chalmers, Howard Eagles

Research Staff

Julia Brüggemann, Paul Eckermann, Karen Francis-Geyer, Greg Lott, Genet Mekuria, Elysia Vassos, Elise Tucker

Marker Implementation Staff

Rebecca Fox, Stephanie Conelius, Daniel Carrocci,

PhD Students

Joanne Elsden – Map-based cloning of a malt quality QTL in barley
Bakhyt Nurzhanuly – Genetic analysis of drought tolerance traits in wheat
Stephen Talbot – Introgression from synthetic hexaploids into Australian bread wheat
Elysia Vassos –Genetic conversion of feed barleys to malting types
Bao-Lam Huynh - Grain fructans in wheat

Current Visitors

Julien Bonneau (ENITAC, France)