Biotechnology
Biotechnology is an integral part of modern plant breeding. The term biotechnology covers the fields of cell and tissue culture and various molecular methods. At the LSA, the broad field of genomics is the main focus of the biotechnology unit. This unit serves as a link between the different breeding programmes of the LSA. The main task is to generate molecular markers for selection in the LSA's breeding programmes. A variety of methods are used to create and find new markers. New sequencing methods (e.g. GBS, WGS, RNAseq, ExomeCapture) are established and the analysis of sequence data (e.g. whole genomes, single genes) is performed using the latest bioinformatics methods. In addition, field and molecular data are processed together in continuously adapted methods (e.g. GWAS, linkage mapping, genomic selection). Novel DNA and RNA extraction protocols are being developed to enable cost-effective and efficient laboratory analysis. In research projects, gene expressions in different tissues and structural genomic variations (e.g. CNVs) are studied and correlated with trait expression for more in-depth knowledge.