Department of Plant Breeding
Research
Research interests in the JLU Giessen Department of Plant Breeding cover various aspects of quantitative and molecular genetics, genomics and breeding of oilseed rape, wheat, sorghum and barley. Currently the group comprises three senior scientists/group leaders, six postdocs and 15 PhD students, assisted by numerous technicians, MSc and BSc students. Our projects are funded by grants from DFG, BMBF, BMEL/FNR and GFPi along with additional private-public partnerships and scholarships.
The main research focus is on combining functional and structural genomics with field-based and controlled-environment evaluation of crop populations for analysis of a wide variety of complex quantitative traits. Special emphasis is placed on the use of next-generation DNA sequencing for SNP discovery, sequencing-based mapping, ultradeep global transcriptome analysis, population epigenomics and polyploid genome structure analysis. The group members are involved in numerous national and international research consortia with partners in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.
Chair
Contact
Department of Plant Breeding, Justus Liebig University
IFZ Research Centre for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition
Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 641 / 99 37421
Fax: +49 (0) 641 / 99 37429
Recent publication highlights
- Stahl A, Wittkop B, Snowdon RJ (2020) High-resolution digital phenotyping of water uptake and transpiration efficiency. Trends Plant Sci, doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2020.02.001
- Voss-Fels K, Stahl A, Wittkop B, Lichthardt C, Nagler S, Rose T, Chen TW, Zetsche H, Seddig S, Baig MM, Ballvora A, Frisch M, Ross E, Hayes B, Hayden M, Ordon F, Leon J, Kage H, Friedt W, Stützel H, Snowdon RJ (2019) Breeding improves wheat productivity under contrasting agrochemical input levels. Nature Plants 5: 706-714, doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0445-5
- Snowdon RJ, Stahl A, Wittkop B, Friedt W, Voss-Fels K, Ordon F, Frisch M, Dreisigacker S, Hearne SJ, Bett KE, Cuthbert RD, Bentley AR, Melchinger AE, Tuberosa R, Langridge P, Uauy C, Sorrells ME, Poland J, Pozniak CJ (2019) Reduced response diversity does not negatively impact wheat climate resilience, Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 116: 10623-10624, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1901882116
- Snowdon RJ, Schiessl-Weidenweber SV (2019) Illuminating crop adaptation using population genomics. Mol Plant 12: 27-29, doi.org/0.1016/j.molp.2018.12.014