SLU Grogrund´s projects

The aim of this project is to strengthen existing domestic barley breeding by introducing novel and efficient methods, in particular the implementation of genomic-assisted breeding for both two and six-row barley.

We develop knowledge and methods in plant breeding to advance new varieties of potato, wheat, oats, sugar beet, and red clover. Our goal is new varieties with high disease resistance and strong yields, well adapted to Swedish conditions - from farm to fork.

The overall goal of the project is to facilitate a more sustainable use of Swedish starchy potatoes. The goal is to be achieved through detailed variety analyses and development of genetic tools to produce new potato varieties of increased quality and resource efficiency.

We envision building efficient breeding programs for perennial, outcrossing forage crops utilizing current knowledge for sustainable feed and food production.

Our vision is to meet Sweden’s demand for protein-based food and feed products by increasing the local production of high-quality protein crops.

The aim of the project is to identify characteristics of plant root systems that can be used as a tool by plant breeders to select crop-resilient varieties, and to evaluate these traits from a cropping systems perspective. We identify genetic markers associated with these traits.

The project aims to develop new rapeseed varieties with reduced levels of antinutritional compounds, thereby expanding the potential uses of rapeseed protein and increasing the value of rapeseed meal. We are evaluating rapeseed lines that we have improved through EMS-induced mutations.

This project focuses on the development of methods for genomic selection in relation to existing commercial plant breeding programs. Particular emphasis is placed on developing models that enable cost-effective implementation of the method within these programs.

The aim of the project is to develop pea varieties suited to Swedish growing conditions with high quality, to promote seed quality and cooking properties, and to reduce the antinutritional traits of the pea varieties.

One of the challenges in cultivating red clover for seed production is the extremely high variability in yield. The vision of the project is to make plant breeding for seed yield in red clover more efficient, as it is an important crop in forage production systems.

This project is about plant breeding for optimised interactions between crops and microorganisms to enhance disease management and production with reduced agrochemical use.

PlantPro+ aims is to enhance protein quality traits in strategically important crops such as pea, faba bean and oats by combining advanced screening methods with genomics-driven breeding.

Climate change is driving the need for crops that are more resilient. This project focuses on reducing the reliance on inputs in potato cultivation, such as irrigation, disease control, and other interventions.

The project aims to develop robust wheat varieties that thrive under diverse environmental conditions. We are conducing field trials across Sweden evaluating for drought, flooding, and heat. We do experiments in climate control chambers and lab for molecular analyses and evaluation of grain quality.

The goal of this project is to identify desirable genes for smell, taste, nutrition, and end-use quality in ancient cereals and wheat-alien introgressions through comprehensive plant breeding-based solutions for improved selection strategies and accelerating cultivar development.

The overall goal of the project is to establish infrastructure, tools, and processes that enable an efficient plant breeding process within the Swedish apple breeding program, ensuring its continued ability to deliver high-performing and climate-adapted apple varieties to Swedish apple growers.

The goal of this project is to identify genomic regions in winter wheat and oat associated with reduced grain cadmium content, develop diagnostic markers for these regions, and implement the marker use into the official value for cultivation and use (VCU) testing.

This project aims to optimize the breeding of triticale, a versatile human-made hybrid between rye and wheat, that combines wheat´s yield and quality with rye´s resilience, offering drought tolerance, cold hardiness, and disease resistance.

Elitplantstationen has been assigned by SLU Grogrund to establish a long-term national variety testing programme for horticultural crops, with the aim of improving selection processes within Swedish horticultural production and promoting the conditions for increased commercial cultivation in Sweden.