RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GENETIC-ENGINEERING OF BARLEY

Cereals are the most important group of plants for human nutrition and animal feed. Partially due to the commercial value of crop plants, th ere has been an ever-increasing interest in using modern biotechnologi cal methods for the improvement of the characteristics of cereals duri ng the past decade. The rapid progress in molecular biology, plant cel l culture techniques, and gene transfer technology has resulted in suc cessful transformations of all the major cereals - maize, rice, wheat, and barley. This brings the biotechnological methods closer to the ro utine also in barley breeding. In this article, the current status of barley genetic engineering, including the patent situation, is reviewe d. The needs, aims, and possible applications of genetic engineering i n barley breeding are discussed.