Most temperate crops including wheat and barley are annual plants, however, most perennial plant communities including the wild relatives of cereal crops have greater biomass capacity and maintain better soil and water quality. We will exploit existing genetic resources in barley including wild barley relatives to dissect the genetic control of primary and axillary meristem development. Variation in the timing of development and tiller formation will be correlated with agronomic performance in the field. Understanding the genetic basis of annual versus perennial growth will allow a targeted transfer of genes conferring perennial growth characteristics to crops with good agronomic performance.

1. Zhong J, van Esse GW, Bi X, Lan T, Walla A, Sang Q, Franzen R, von Korff M (2021) INTERMEDIUM-M encodes an HvAP2L-H5 ortholog and is required for inflorescence indeterminacy and spikelet determinacy in barley. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 118(8). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2011779118.
2. Gol L, Haraldsson EB, von Korff M (2021) Ppd-H1 integrates drought stress signals to control spike development and flowering time in barley. J Exp Bot 72(1):122-136. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eraa261.
3. Walla A, van Esse GW, Kirschner G, Guo G, Brünje A, Finkemeier I, Simon R, von Korff M (2020) An acyl-CoA N-acyltransferase regulates meristem phase change and plant architecture in barley. Plant Physiol:pp.00087.02020. doi: 10.1104/pp.20.00087.
4. Müller L, Mombaerts L, Pankin A, Davis SJ, Webb AA, Goncalves J, von Korff M (2020) Differential effects of day-night cues and the circadian clock on the barley transcriptome. Plant Physiol:pp.01411.02019. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.01411.
5. Ejaz M and von Korff M (2016) Genetic control of reproductive development under high ambient temperature. Plant Physiology, doi: 10.1104/pp.16.01275.