Institute for Cereal Crops Research
Our current research activities include:
1. Ex-situ and in-situ conservation of the wild relatives of cereal crops-
- Assessing the genetic diversity of Aegilops sharonensis in Israel, using molecular markers
- Study of the spatial diversity of Aegilops sharonensis in relation to ecological factors
- Emergency collection of seeds from endangered populations
- Renewal of the in situ research on wild wheat in Ammiad site
2. Genetics of resistance to wheat diseases-
- Genetics of resistance to stripe rust in wild emmer
- Genetics of resistance to powdery mildew in wild emmer
- Genetics of resistance to stripe rust in Aegilops sharonensis
- 2.4 Genetic control of host and non host relationships between wheat and Aegilops speltoides and two formae speciales of leaf rust
3. Transfer of economically valuable genes from wild cereals to wheat-
- Transfer of novel stripe rust resistance genes from wild emmer to bread wheat
- Transfer of resistance to wheat leaf rust from Aegilops speltoides to bread wheat
- Transfer of resistance to stripe rust and wheat leaf rust from Aegilops sharonensis to bread wheat
4. Breeding Israeli wheat for disease resistances by using bread wheat germplasm
5. Identification of genes involved in resistance of wheat toward Mycosphaerella graminicola
6. Phytopathological and mycological studies
- Development of a comprehensive system for identification of rust fungi
- Studies of the pycnial nectar of rust fungi and its part in the fungal fertilization process
- Use of flow cytometry for determination of nuclear DNA values in cereals and in cereal rust urediniospore
- Leaf rust on Aegilops speltoides caused by a new forma specialis of Puccinia triticina
- Wheat rusts populations in Israel
- Efforts to monitor appearance of UG99 stem rust
- Testing wheat candidate lines for breeding of disease-resistant varieties
- Nuclear history from teliospore germination through basidiospore formation
- Whole-cell fatty acid profiles
- Spore dimensions of some cereal rusts as determined by image analysis
7. Mathematical methods in study of genetic structure, relationships and dynamics of populations-
- General theory of measuring diversity within and distance between populations
- New methods for analyses of molecular markers data
- Diversity of plant pathogen populations: general approach, new mathematical methods, and computational tools
- Analysis of host-pathogen systems
- Modeling the dynamics of plant pathogen epidemics
