Most traits of agronomic importance are quantitative traits, i.e. the phenotypic observations cannot be assigned to distinct classes but follow a continuous distribution. This is caused by a polygenic inheritance as well as the importance of genotype*environment interaction for such traits.
The work of the Institute for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics of Plants aims to identify the causes of natural phenotypic variation of crop plants on a molecular level, in order to attain the ultimate goal of our work - the prediction of phenotypic performance under various environmental conditions. This requires combined efforts on creating novel plant material, exploiting the possibilities of *omics technologies, and developing innovative biostatistical procedures.
The strength of the institute is the biostatistical analysis of quantitative data collected on various biological levels of plants. Furthermore, the institute brings a wealth of knowledge in the design and performance of field trials with various crop species.
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