Martin Mascher (IPK Gatersleben, Germany): Barley diversity now and 6000 years ago: archaeogenetics, sequence assembly and genebank genomics.

Date

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Time

12:30-13:30 (AEST)

Venues

CSIRO: Black Mountain – Discovery Theatre, St Lucia QBP – Level 3 South telepresence room (3.323), Floreat – B1b Boardroom, Waite – B101-FG-R00-SmallWICWest

Speaker

Martin Mascher, Head of Research Group Domestication Genomics, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben Germany

Synopsis

The cereal grass barley was domesticated about 10,000 years before the present in the Fertile Crescent and became a founder crop of Neolithic agriculture. After domestication, during a process of widespread range extension, barley adapted to a broad spectrum of agricultural environments. Today, barley remains an important crop that is used around the world as animal fodder and raw material for the malting industry. In the first part of my presentation, I will report on the genetic relationship of 6000-year old barley grains found in a cave in the Judean Desert to extant populations (Nature Genetics 2016). Next, I will describe the assembly of the recently published barley reference genome (Nature 2017) using chromosome conformation capture sequencing (Hi-C). Finally, I will present first results of our on-going efforts to transform genebanks from storage facilities for germplasm collections into digital resource centers for crop improvement. Towards this purpose, we are currently collecting genomic and phenotypic passport data of the entire barley collection of more than 20,000 accessions hosted at the German Federal ex situ genebank.

Biography

Martin Mascher is the Head of the Research Group Domestication Genomics at Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben. Prior to this, Martin completed undergraduate studies in Mathematics at the University of Magdeburg and a PhD in Bioinformatics at IPK Gatersleben. His research focuses on domestication genomics, studying domestication and adaptation processed and their interaction with genetic diversity in crops and their wild relatives. Using barley as a model, he and his research team apply population genetics methods, genome informatics and gene expression analysis to genome-wide sequence, genetic marker and transcriptome datasets. In addition, they are involved in the development of genomic sequence and map resources to enable the unbiased assessment of genetic variation in highly diverse germplasm collections and facilitate the genomic contextualization of sequence data.

 

This is a public seminar.

NO visitor pass is required for non-CSIRO attendees going to Discovery Lecture Theatre