Plant Genetics and Development
Research in my group focuses on increasing the productivity of crops in order to contribute towards alleviating the problem of food security. At the present time, we focus on tef (Eragrostis tef), economically important but under-researched cereal crop widely cultivated in the Horn of Africa. Tef is particularly important because it adapts to diverse climatic and soil conditions and also tolerates many pests and diseases. In addition to its agronomic and nutritional benefits, the seeds of tef are free of gluten, a substance present in wheat and other cereals for which high number of people are allergic. We implement both genetics and genomics tools in order to develop cultivars with increased tolerance to lodging and scarce soil moisture. In order to achieve these goals, we apply high-throughput techniques such as TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) and MutMap. Information from our tef genome sequencing supports the TILLING and marker-assisted breeding particularly the SSR (Single Nucleotide Repeat) method. Several candidate tef lines tolerant to lodging and drought are introgressed to locally adapted cultivars and being tested in the field in Ethiopia.
► Google Scholar:https://scholar.google.ch/citations?hl=de&user=Z7-VNa0AAAAJ
Prof. Dr. Zerihun Tadele
University of Bern
Institute of Plant Sciences
3013 Bern
Tel: +41 (0)31 631 49 56