The Carlsberg Research Laboratory is a private scientific research center in Copenhagen, Denmark under the Carlsberg Group. It was founded in 1875 by J. C. Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg brewery, with the purpose of advancing biochemical knowledge, especially relating to brewing. It featured a Department of Chemistry and a Department of Physiology. In 1972, the laboratory was renamed the Carlsberg Research Center and was transferred to the brewery.
Chemical, biological, and physical mutagens induce modifications of nucleotides in the exposed organisms, resulting in base changes in their DNA. When harnessed, mutagenesis increases genetic diversity in crops and aids in elucidating gene function through the study of mutants with altered phenotypes, particularly when combined with reverse genetic techniques such as Fast Identification of Nucleotide variants by droplet digital PCR (FIND-IT). Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a prime candidate organism for mutagenesis; several mutant populations have been produced using ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) as the mutagen. However, none of these studies address the optimisation of EMS treatment rates for large sorghum mutant populations. Here, we examined how varying EMS concentrations (0.05, 0.15, and 0.25
Background: In breeding the aim is to identify and accumulate beneficial variants. However, detection of these variants may be challenging in the presence of extensive genotype x environment interactions (GxE), as variant effects will be conditional on environment. The study assesses the performance of 264 diploid perennial ryegrass accessions in a multi-environment field trial. Methods: We investigate the extent of GxE, for yield (total dry matter) and persistence traits, i.e. winter kill, and spring cover, under environmental conditions experienced in Nordic and Baltic regions at the limit of the species distribution. Two different approaches to modelling GxE were tested: reaction norm and envirotyping. Models were validated under different breeding scenarios. Results: Our analysis documented the presence of significant GxE interaction for all traits investigated in the study. Validation showed improvements in prediction accuracy when accounting for GxE: up to 4% for grain yield when predicting in unobserved environments, and up to 21% for spring cover when predicting in unobserved germplasm. Genome-wide-association analyses (GWAS) were utilized to detect genetic variants with marginal effects (environment-independent effect) and conditional effects (environment-dependent effects). Results showed the presence of large-effect genetic variants with marginal effects, in addition to few QTL whose effects were adaptive under specific environmental conditions while neutral or deleterious under different environmental conditions. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the usefulness and limitations of genomic prediction models for predicting GxE in highly diverse samples, and describes the extent of GxE interactions at the limit of species distribution for perennial ryegrass. Finally, our study points toward adaptive variation, which may enhance persistence of perennial ryegrass populations in Nordic and Baltic growing conditions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Zinc (Zn) deficiency is widespread in agricultural soils and it is also a common nutritional problem in humans. We previously discovered a Zn Sensor Motif (ZSM) in the Arabidopsis F-bZIP transcription factors, bZIP19 and bZIP23, which impacts the concentration of Zn in Arabidopsis plants. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is one of the most important cereals crops worldwide and here, using a large-scale sorghum mutant library, we report the identification of variants with a ZSM point mutation. We show that a cysteine substitution in the ZSM of the sorghum bZIP19/23 homolog causes a three-fold increase in Zn levels in sorghum seeds with no visible developmental penalty. Our work provides the first evidence that modulating the F-bZIP ZSM is a promising strategy for Zn biofortification in crops. This discovery paves the way to generate Zn biofortified crops and alleviate the global problems of Zn deficient soils and Zn malnutrition. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Background Mutants have had a fundamental impact upon scientific and applied genetics. They have paved the way for the molecular and genomic era, and most of today’s crop plants are derived from breeding programs involving mutagenic treatments. Results Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the most widely grown cereals in the world and has a long history as a crop plant. Barley breeding started more than 100 years ago and large breeding programs have collected and generated a wide range of natural and induced mutants, which often were deposited in genebanks around the world. In recent years, an increased interest in genetic diversity has brought many historic mutants into focus because the collections are regarded as valuable resources for understanding the genetic control of barley biology and barley breeding. The increased interest has been fueled also by recent advances in genomic research, which provided new tools and possibilities to analyze and reveal the genetic diversity of mutant collections. Conclusion Since detailed knowledge about phenotypic characters of the mutants is the key to success of genetic and genomic studies, we here provide a comprehensive description of mostly morphological barley mutants. The review is closely linked to the International Database for Barley Genes and Barley Genetic Stocks ( bgs.nordgen.org ) where further details and additional images of each mutant described in this review can be found.
Pangenomes are collections of annotated genome sequences of multiple individuals of a species. The structural variants uncovered by these datasets are a major asset to genetic analysis in crop plants. Here, we report a pangenome of barley comprising long-read sequence assemblies of 76 wild and domesticated genomes and short-read sequence data of 1,315 genotypes. An expanded catalogue of sequence variation in the crop includes structurally complex loci that have become hot spots of gene copy number variation in evolutionarily recent times. To demonstrate the utility of the pangenome, we focus on four loci involved in disease resistance, plant architecture, nutrient release, and trichome development. Novel allelic variation at a powdery mildew resistance locus and population-specific copy number gains in a regulator of vegetative branching were found. Expansion of a family of starch-cleaving enzymes in elite malting barleys was linked to shifts in enzymatic activity in micro-malting trials. Deletion of an enhancer motif is likely to change the developmental trajectory of the hairy appendages on barley grains. Our findings indicate that rapid evolution at structurally complex loci may have helped crop plants adapt to new selective regimes in agricultural ecosystems.
