Molecular breeding of barley for quality traits and resilience to climate change.

Barley grains are a rich source of compounds, such as resistant starch, beta-glucans and anthocyanins, that can be explored in order to develop various products to support human health, while lignocellulose in straw can be optimised for feed in husbandry, bioconversion into bioethanol or as a starting material for new compounds. Existing natural variations of these compounds can be used to breed improved cultivars or integrated with a large number of mutant lines. The technical demands can be in opposition depending on barley's end use as feed or food or as a source of biofuel.