The subject area Applied Genetics and Crop Genetic Improvement integrates the principles of genetics, molecular biology, and plant physiology to develop new cultivars with enhanced traits – from root to shoot – for both agricultural and horticultural crops.
Advances in molecular genomic technologies, phenotyping, and computational systems now provide powerful opportunities to design more efficient and precise approaches to plant breeding. The full potential of genomics will be realized when combined with other omics disciplines, quantitative genetics, envirotyping, and crop management to enable integrated and comparative analyses of genotypic, phenotypic, and pedigree information for key crop traits.
Research in crop genetics spans a wide range of subfields, each contributing to a deeper understanding of how genetic variation influences plant performance and how these insights can be applied to crop improvement. In a participatory and practice-oriented approach, networks of small-scale and professional growers are also involved in citizen science initiatives for variety selection and field testing, accelerating the advancement of elite selections across diverse environments.
Researchers in this subject area have long been active across these subfields, establishing strong research groups that conduct successful work on both temperate and tropical crops. They also play key roles in education and training at BSc, MSc, and doctoral levels, contributing to national and international programmes.
Key focus areas
• Transmission Genetics: Studies the genetic makeup of crops and inheritance patterns to improve traits such as resilience to biotic and abiotic stress and nutritional quality.
• Population Genetics: Analyses genetic diversity within and among crop populations, incorporating natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift to inform and refine breeding strategies.
• Quantitative Genetics: Examines traits controlled by multiple genes, applying statistical approaches to estimate heritability and predict breeding outcomes for complex characteristics such as yield and stress tolerance.
Teaching
Courses and teaching activities within the subject area cover: Plant breeding principles and practices, quantitative genetics, applied botany, plant identification and classification, breeding methodology, phenomics, bioinformatics, plant physiology, and breeding for resistance and abiotic stress tolerance of crops.