Plant breeding for climate change adaptation

Global change threatens agricultural production and represents a challenge for plant breeding research. Consequently, research focuses on elucidating the genetic regulation of adaptation to drought stress in crop plants. Barley is a good model for analysing genetic adaptation mechanisms, as it is characterized by tolerance to abiotic stress and a high genetic diversity. Understanding the genetic regulation of flowering time, for example, will allow the targeted manipulation of development during the breeding process and hence adaptation to changing environments.