A view from industry on genetic resource utilization in the light of climate change Mats Hansson Carlsberg
Laboratory, Gamle Carlsberg Vej 10, DK-1799 Copenhagen V, Denmark, Global climate changes are considered as a major threat to the business of the Carlsberg breweries, specifically availability, quality and cost of barley for malting. At the Carlsberg Laboratory we are performing research related to lodging tolerance and adaptation to new geographic areas. Lodging is a problem that is expected to increase as global climate change is expected to cause more frequent occurrence of extreme weather situations, including thunderstorms with torrential rain and strong winds, augmenting culm breakage. At the same time, global climate changes will move distribution ranges of crop plants, i.e. barley will be grown in new geographic areas which will require genetic fine tuning of the elite cultivars of the future. We employ barley mutants for gaining insights into the signaling networks and molecular processes underlying these traits. |