XVI International Botanical Congess

One of the most straightforward applications of molecular techniques in a breeding program is marker assisted selection. Results will be presented on molecular mapping of genes conferring resistance to various fungal and viral diseases. While the availability of selectable markers will allow manipulation of a specific chromosome fragment, future breeding strategies might inceasingly depend on detailed knowledge of gene function. Therefore, efforts are underway to isolate virus resistance genes by map based cloning and the large scale generation of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) has been initiated to capture a major portion of the gene repertoire of barley.