Secale cereale Project
Welcome to the PGSB Rye Genome Database
Rye (Secale cereale) is an important cereal crop
mainly cultivated in Eastern and Northern Europe. The rye
domestication started 7000 years ago (Neolithic Era) in
the Near East and later in Europe. At the beginning rye
has been considered a weed in wheat and barley fields
(Sencer and Hawkes, 1980; Willcox, 2005) but its
popularity gained due to its low requirements regarding
soil and fertilization, as well as a good overwintering
ability. These traits makes rye a perfect model for
consequently improvement of closely related cereal crops
like wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum
vulgare), which are less tolerant to abiotic stress.
Rye (Triticeae tribe) is an outbreeding diploid with a
large, highly repetitive genome (1C = 8.1 Gbp) which has
undergone a series of rearrangements in comparison to
other grass genomes. A high-density gene-based marker map,
chromosomal survey sequences from sorted rye chromosomes
and global conserved synteny allowed us to analyze the rye
genome organization and evolution.
For further questions regarding the PGSB Rye database and its content please contact Manuel Spannagl.
