Division of Plant Breeding
Plant breeding will contribute significantly to future crop production systems as new varieties must have increased resistance to biotic factors, more efficient nutrient and water uptake, and appropriate product quality to meet the diverse requirements of end users.
Variation is key
Plant genetic resources with variation in different traits is the key to plant breeding. The characterization and use of these crop genetic resources will be crucial to overcome the challenges of agriculture in the future. Understanding the genetic variation and inheritance of important traits in different crops will help develop knowledge-driven plant breeding methods, which will accelerate the rate of improvement.
What we do
We research crop biodiversity and heritability, map genetic variation in crop traits, and produce new crop germplasm for further use in plant breeding. The research agenda targets traits such as host plant resistance to pathogens and pests, weed competition, nutrient uptake, adaptation to northern climates, and product quality for wheat, barley, potatoes, and apples. Our researchers also work on domestication and genetic improvement of new crops (e.g. Lepidium for oil) for environmentally friendly farming systems.
Similarly, we train PhD students and build national research capacity on plant genetic resource characterization and breeding for several crops, such as maize, rice, sorghum, wheat, teff, common beans, peas, coffee, banana, avocado and fescue.
Our commitments vary in nature: from basic research such as molecular characterization of genetic variation to more applied research, e.g. breeding of potato resistant potato varieties for Sweden and the Nordic countries. Most of our work uses various plant breeding methods, genomic tools, protocols for precise phenotyping, chemical analyses to assess the quality of the products, greenhouse/growth chamber screening, and field trials.
