Gen om e d iver si ty

4,476 potato accessions (2012: 2,211; 2013: 2,265) were dis-
tributed in the context of 615 requests (340; 275).
the Malchow/Poel Oil Plants and Fodder Crops Collec-
tions (e. Willner, S. nehrlich) maintain 10,462 samples of (fod-
der) grasses, 2,490 oil plants and 1,331 forage legumes (total: 
14,283 accessions).
Research Group: Satellite Collections North
head:  dr. klaus J. dehmer
Scientists
IPK financed
nehrlich, Stephanie (0,50, till 31.05.2012)
Willner, evelin (0,50/1,00)
Grant Positions
diekmann, kerstin, dr. (bMbF, till 31.03.2012; bMeLV, since 
01.04.2012)
Gerson, Lydia (0,50 bayerische Landesanstalt für Land-
wirtschaft, till 30.09.2012)
Liu, Siyang (0,50 bMeLV/FnR, since 01.03.2013)
nehrlich, Stephanie (0,50 bMeLV, since 01.06.2012)
Witter, Steffi (0,50 bMeLV/FnR, till 30.09.2012)
Visiting Scientists/Scholars
Gerson, Lydia (self-financed, 01.10.2012-31.12.2013)
Goals
collection and conservation management of potato, oil and 
fodder crop genetic resources; characterization and evaluation, 
research on and valorization of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR).
Research Report
the  Groß Lüsewitz  Potato Collections (GLkS; k.J. dehmer) 
maintain 6,124 accessions from 140 tuber bearing Solanum 
species within three separate collections. these are a collec-
tion of clonally propagated genotypes of andean or equatorial 
origin (akS; 535 entries, mainly seven cultivated species), a col-
lection of 2,743 Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum cultivars, 
landraces or breeding lines (kkS, vegetatively propagated), and 
a collection of 2,846 accessions of 139 wild and cultivated spe-
cies from Southern and central america (WkS, sexually propa-
gated).
as a result of evaluations carried out in cooperation with ex-
ternal partners, several accessions and genotypes resistant to 
three major potato pests could be detected: For the cyst nema-
tode Globodera pallida, 10 accessions and 81 genotypes exhib-
ited the Pa2/3 resistance phenotype (152 WkS accessions/764 
genotypes tested by the State Plant Protection office Rostock). 
With regard to Phytophthora infestans, 15 accessions and 93 
genotypes could be shown to be very resistant to leaf infec-
tions (23 WkS accessions/139 genotypes tested by Julius kühn 
institute, institute for breeding Research on agricultural crops 
Jki/zL). against tuber infections, 65 accessions/306 genotypes 
out of 138 WkS accessions/690 genotypes were resistant with 
one accession/15 genotypes being even very resistant (Jki/zL). 

51
Regarding research, first CANCOR analyses of C&E-data from 
previous years, carried out in co-operation with inRa Lusignan, 
showed that latitude and longitude of the geographic origin 
of an accession  were  strong determinants of the natural 
phenotypic diversity of perennial ryegrass – e.g. traits like 
heading date, disease resistances, greenness before/after win-
ter - at the european scale (S. nehrlich).
in cooperation with LfL Freising-Weihenstephan, the complex 
trait ‘persistence’ was analyzed in Lolium perenne  (L. Ger-
son). here, phenotypic data from the field as well as SnP analy-
ses failed to yield consistent correlations to persistence. 
Molecular marker data (darts, SnPs, SSRs) did not confirm the pres-
ence of heterotic groups as a basis for hybrid breeding for bio-
mass production in Lolium (S. Witter, S. Liu; in cooperation with 
Jki/institute for
 
crop and Soil Science Pb, breeding companies, 
Schmack biogas and university of Göttingen). the evaluation of 
field data and their correlation to the marker data is still ongoing.
First year results from a research project on drought tolerance 
in Lolium (V. Miehe, e. Willner; in cooperation with LfL and Jki/ 
RS) showed a differentiation between genotypes/entries 
regarding drought stress susceptibility in field and rain-out-
shelter trials; these results have to be confirmed in the second 
and third year trials. From these entries, a smaller subset was 
selected based on stress performance, regenerated and distrib-
uted to the partners for further evaluations.
the  European Central Poa Database with currently 6,507 
accessions was developed further in co-operation with i.d. 
thomas, ibeRS, aberystwyth, with regard to the determina-
tion of aeGiS accessions for the euRo-Genebank. of 1,232 Poa 
accessions of the iPk forage collection, 380 were determined 
as aeGiS accessions, being unique and valuable (e. Willner).  
(https://www.google.com/fusiontables/dataSource?docid=1z
ejSijePVGmdLec4zjpdxftaViukwwWfpGlo23k). 
in respect to classical genebank work, 3,078 accessions were 
cultivated in 2012 (1,649 entries) and 2013 (1,429 accs.), either 
for regeneration (1,428) and characterization (1,542) or for eva-
luation.
analyses on the actual state of successful regenerations from 
2012 showed that 72  % of the respective seed lots (605 out 
of 830 accessions) could be split according to Fao genebank 
standards (abS system). this level has to be maintained in or-
der to regenerate all Malchow samples successfully within 25 
years, which represents the average shelf life of the oil and fod-
der crop seed samples. here, success rates vary between 87 % 
(crucifers), 79 % (grasses) and 10 % (legumes). the latter group 
will be in the focus of future regenerations.
according to Fao genebank standards, 82 % of the whole Mal-
chow collection is stored as an active and base collection 
and is available for seed requests, while 74 % is stored as safe-
ty duplicate at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Characterizations for 15 traits were performed on 1,542 grass 
accessions for an initial description of their phenotypical traits 
as well as for the confirmation of their botanical classification.
Fig. 17
comparison of tuber starch content of Groß Lüsewitz Potato collections (GLkS) potato accessions (green columns) vs. modern starch cultivars (blue columns). Shown are 
the 50 genotypes with the highest starch content, based on the evaluation of tubers harvested from the field in 2013. top left: tubers of GLkS 11523/Sira, showing a starch 
content of 26.3 % (S. nehrlich, k.J. dehmer).

Abteilung Genbank/
Department of Genebank
52
Field evaluations were carried out for Lolium perenne (45 ac-
cessions as recently bred material in cooperation with LFa), 
which were compared to standard varieties in a three-year trial 
for trait variability and green matter yield (k. Ploen).
Germination tests were conducted for 13,462 accessions, the 
average germination rate was 86.9 % (R. Rudloff).
a total of 3,868 samples (2,561; 1,307) were provided to 295 
users (159; 136).
Publications
Peer Reviewed Papers
2012
k
reyling
,  J., d. t
hiel
, k. S
immnacher
, e. W
illner
, a. J
entsch
 & c. 
b
eierkuhnlein
: Geographic origin and past climatic experi-
ence influence the response to late spring frost in four com-
mon grass species of central europe. ecography 35 (2012) 
268-275.
S
eibt
, k.M., t. W
enke
, c. W
ollrab
, h. J
unghans
, k. M
uders
, k.J. d
eh
-
mer
, k. d
iekmann
 & t. S
chmidt
: development and application 
of Sine-based markers for genotyping of potato varieties. 
theor. appl. Genet. 125 (2012) 185-196.
Books and Book Chapters
2013
n
ehrlich
, S., e. W
illner
 & k.J. d
ehmer
: characterization and evalua-
tion of genebank accessions as a pre-selection instruments 
for plant breeding objectives and strategies. in: b
arth
, S. & d. 
M
ilbourne
 (eds.): breeding strategies for sustainable forage 
and turf grass improvement. Springer Science+business 
Media, dordrecht, the netherlands (2013) 301-305.

53
as a summary of several years of fieldwork in iran and adjacent 
countries a revision of Allium subgenus Melanocrommyum for 
the Flora of iran was finished (Fritsch and abbasi 2013), pro-
viding detailed descriptions of already known and new species 
and intrageneric taxa, as well as identification keys and photo-
graphs for all up to now recognized taxa of this group occurring 
in iran. overall more than 30 new Allium species were described 
for iran and neighbouring regions during the last years, render-
ing this area a diversity hotspot of Allium (R. Fritsch).
in the barley genus Hordeum we analyse all aspects related 
to phylogeny, speciation and ecological adaptation. to enable 
studies of polyploid taxa it is necessary to know if polyploids 
originated as auto- or allopolyploids and, in the case of allopoly-
ploids, identify the parental species. in the last years two phy-
logenetic studies were conducted. the first involved the use of 
a nuclear single-copy locus (TOPO6) that was PcR amplified, 
cloned and sequenced in all taxa of the genus (brassac et al. 
2012). the second approach used PcR amplification of 13 loci, 
individual-specific barcoding of amplicons, and second-gener-
ation sequencing of pooled fragments. our analyses showed, 
that the second approach results in much better resolution of 
species relationships involving a comparable amount of work. 
the multilocus data resulted in the most comprehensive data-
set for a Hordeum phylogeny up-to-date and resolves for the 
first time relationships for all di- and polyploid taxa within a sin-
gle analysis (J. brassac).
to understand the influence of flowering-time differences 
on species stability in sympatric geographical settings in Pa-
tagonia the analysis of all genes known to influence the time 
of flower setting in Hordeum are currently analysed for three 
Hordeum species from southern Patagonia (within the dFG 
priority program on flowering time). For these genes hybridi-
sation probes were designed and used to capture the respec-
tive loci for individuals from different populations of the study 
species. currently sequencing of the gene-enriched libraries 
is ongoing and should result in knowledge of allele diversity 
under different geographic and population biologic conditions  
(k. herrmann).
the genus Crocus was thought to consist of about 80 species 
distributed from Western europe to the western-most parts of 
china. Many Crocus species are used as ornamentals, and saf-
fron (Crocus sativus) is the most expensive spice by weight (see 
Fig. 18, p. 54). Within a dFG-funded project we constructed 
a phylogeny of the genus based on nuclear and chloroplast 
marker regions. currently we are in the process to propose a 
new systematic and nomenclature for the genus that more 
closely reflects the phylogenetic data. this involves description 
of new species, so that the species number within the genus is 
Scientists
IPK financed
bini, Federica, dr. (since 01.06.2012)
brassac, Jonathan (0,50, 01.02.-30.09.2013)
Pistrick, klaus, dr.
Grant Positions
bernhardt, nadine (0,65 dFG)
brassac, Jonathan (0,65 dFG, till 31.01.2013)
harpke, dörte, dr. (0,50 dFG, till 14.11.2012)
herrmann, katja (0,65 dFG)
Šarhanová, Petra (0,65 dFG, since 01.07.2012)
Visiting Scientists/Scholars
bordbar, Firouzeh (Scholarship of iranian Ministry, 02.03.-
15.07.2013)
brassac, Jonathan (self-financed, since 01.10.2013)
Fritsch, Reinhard, dr. (dFG)
nürk, nicolai Matthias, dr. (dFG, till 15.02.2013)
Roofigar, azadeh akhavan (self-financed, 23.08.-15.11.2012)
Šarhanová, Petra (daad, till 30.06.2012)
Goals
Phylogenetic classification and analysis of evolution of crops 
and their wild relatives. experimental studies to link molecular 
markers and phylogenetic data with ecological and mor-
phological traits, and to analyze plant–environment inter-
dependency on and below the species level in an evolutionary 
framework. the other important part of the work of the group 
regards  curatorial management of the taxonomic collec-
tions, particularly the herbarium of the iPk, and nomenclatu-
rally suitable treatments of taxa.
Research Report
the major aim of the group is to understand mechanisms re-
sulting in speciation processes in specific plant groups. this 
involves the study of the distribution of species, populations 
and genotypes in time and space together with the analysis 
of character state changes involved in environmental adapta-
tion and reproductive isolation. characters like abiotic stress 
tolerance or flowering time influence the ecological niches of 
organisms and are often also important agronomic traits. in 
the process of such analyses new taxa are often recognised 
and published according to the rules of botanical nomencla-
ture, with reference specimens (types) deposited in the her-
barium of the iPk.
PROGRAMME: TAxONOMy AND EVOLUTION
Research Group: Experimental Taxonomy
head:  dr. Frank blattner

Abteilung Genbank/
Department of Genebank
54
tion with c. ezcurra from the university of bariloche, argentina  
(P. Šarhanová).
a dFG-funded project on Hypericum systematics was finished. 
the project was part of a cooperation with the natural history 
Museum London, and connected to other Hypericum projects in 
the groups of t. Sharbel and h. bäumlein at the iPk and M. koch’s 
group at the university of heidelberg. a molecular phylogeny 
of the genus was published (nürk et al. 2013) that provides new 
insights in taxonomic groups within the genus and infers com-
plex intercontinental colonisation patterns. based on this work 
n. nürk was able to receive dFG-funding for a follow-up project 
on the rapid radiation of Hypericum in andean South america 
that he conducts now in M. koch’s group in heidelberg. together 
with L. altschmied and h. bäumlein we are currently working on 
a sequence of the H. perforatum genome that will be important 
to understand mechanisms leading to apomixis in this species 
and to get insights in pathways resulting in the pharmaceutically 
important secondary compounds of St. John’s wort.
the  herbarium of the iPk holds currently a collection of 
427,000 vouchers, with additional 104,000 samples in the seed 
and fruit and 54,000 in the spike collections. during the last two 
years more than 10,000 new specimens were included in the 
collection, mostly reference materials of genebank accessions, 
but also representing samples collected during field trips and 
type specimens of newly described taxa. thus, the herbarium is 
an integral part for documenting biodiversity-related research 
within the iPk. in the frame of a dFG-funded project in coop-
eration with the Genebank documentation group (h. knüpffer, 
cong khac dung, M. oppermann) 11,706 crop and wild plant 
specimens of iPk’s herbarium have been scanned and will be 
made online accessible via the “Virtual herbaria” portal of the 
database system JacQ, developed at the department of botany 
of the Museum of natural history, Vienna (h. Rainer, k. Pistrick).
Publications
Peer Reviewed Papers
2012
b
enor
, S., S. d
emissew
, k. h
ammer
 & F.R. b
lattner
: Genetic diversity 
and relationships in Corchorus olitorius (Malvaceae s.l.) in-
ferred from molecular and morphological data. Genet. Re-
sour. crop evol. 59 (2012) 1125-1146.
b
rassac
,  J., S.S. J
akob
 & F.R. b
lattner
: Progenitor-derivative rela-
tionships of Hordeum polyploids (Poaceae, triticeae) in-
ferred from sequences of TOPO6, a nuclear low-copy gene 
region. PLoS one 7 (2012) e33808.
c
elep
, F., M. k
oyuncu
, R.M. F
ritsch
, a. k
ahraman
 & M. d
oğan
: taxo-
nomic importance of seed morphology in Allium (amaryl-
lidaceae). Syst. bot. 37 (2012) 893-912.
F
ritsch
, R.M.: Geographic relations and morphological variation 
inside molecular clades of central asian Allium species of 
subg. Melanocrommyum (amaryllidaceae). Verh. zool.-bot. 
Ges. Österreich 148/149 (2012) 245-263.
now estimated to be closer to 160 than 80. in-detail molecu-
lar and morphological analyses of several subgroups of Crocus 
were recently started to provide deeper insights in the interre-
lation of chromosome number changes, geographical isolation 
and speciation events (d. harpke). 
Fig. 18
Crocus tahtaliensis from southern turkey. this species is one of the newly 
described taxa (kerndorff et al. 2013) recognized during fieldwork in anatolia and 
through the analysis of molecular markers. Photograph taken by e. Pasche at the 
type location at Mount tahtali.
a project aiming at clarifying the phylogeny of Hordeae (for-
merly  Triticeae) uses 400 genes, evenly distributed among 
the chromosomes of the taxa, which are captured by hybridi-
sation probes and afterwards sequenced on the illumina nGS 
platform. capture probes were designed based on multiple-
sequence alignments of full-length cdna with known chro-
mosomal positions from Hordeum vulgare,  Triticum aestivum 
and Brachypodium distachyon. in parallel, single-seed descent 
populations were built for the study, and genome sizes were 
measured to get information on the ploidy level of the study 
materials. First tests show that sequence capture with exon-
based probes also obtain intron information and, thus, pro-
vides access to these faster evolving parts of the genome (n. 
bernhardt).
as a follow-up study of an earlier analysis that showed that 
Hordeum species endured ice-age climate changes in situ in 
the Patagonian steppe we are now analysing the reaction of 
the woody part of steppe vegetation on Pleistocene cold cy-
cles. For typical bushes of the Patagonian steppe, population 
samples were collected and will be analysed to obtain phylo-
geographic patterns, which should allow reconstructing mi-
gration routes and population demography. We like to see if 
only herbaceous species were able to resist changing climate 
conditions or if this was also possible for other members of 
the steppe. this dFG-funded project is conducted in coopera-

55
k
erndorff
, h., e. P
asche
, F.R. b
lattner
 & d. h
arpke
: a new species of 
Crocus (Liliiflorae, iridaceae) from turkey. Stapfia 99 (2013) 
159-186.
M
arques
,  a., a.M. b
anaei
-M
oghaddam
, S. k
lemme
, F.R. b
lattner
, k. 
n
iwa
, M. G
uerra
 & a. h
ouben
: b chromosomes of rye are high-
ly conserved and accompanied the development of early 
agriculture. ann. bot. 112 (2013) 527-534.
M
ascher
, M., t.a. R
ichmond
, d.J. G
erhardt
, a. h
immelbach
, L. c
lissold
, 
d. S
ampath
, S. a
yling
, b. S
teuernagel
, M. P
feifer
, M. d’a
scenzo
, 
e.d. a
khunov
, P.e. h
edley
, a.M. G
onzales
, P.L. M
orrell
, b. k
ilian
, 
F.R. b
lattner
, u. S
cholz
, k.F. M
ayer
, a.J. F
lavell
, G.J. M
uehlbauer
, 
R. W
augh
, J.a. J
eddeloh
 & n. S
tein
: barley whole exome cap-
ture: a tool for genomic research in the genus Hordeum and 
beyond. Plant J. 76 (2013) 494-505.
n
ürk
,  n.M., S. M
adriñán
, M.a. c
arine
, M.W. c
hase
 & F.R. b
lattner
: 
Molecular phylogenetics and morphological evolution of 
St. John’s wort (Hypericum; hypericaceae). Mol. Phylogenet. 
evol. 66 (2013) 1-16.
P
leines
, t., k. e
sfeld
, F.R. b
lattner
 & M. t
hiv
: ecotypes and genetic 
structure of Rhinanthus alectorolophus (orobanchaceae) in 
southwestern Germany. Plant Syst. evol. 299 (2013) 1523-
1535.
t
ison
, J.M., a. P
eterson
, d. h
arpke
 & L. P
eruzzi
: Reticulate evolution 
of the critical Mediterranean Gagea sect. Didymobulbos 
(Liliaceae) and its taxonomic implications. Plant Syst. evol. 
299 (2013) 413-438.
Books and Book Chapters
2013
F
ritsch
,  R.M. & M. a
bbasi
: a taxonomic review of Allium subg. 
Mela nocrommyum in iran. iPk Gatersleben (2013) 244 pp.
Other Papers
2012
h
ilbig
, W., k. P
istrick
, n. n
arantujaa
 & c. S
ančir
: beitrag zur kennt-
nis der Flora der östlichen Mongolei (ostmongolischer Flo-
renbezirk und angrenzende Gebiete). erforsch. biol. Ress. 
Mongolei (halle/S.) 12 (2012) 371-393.
o
yuntsetseg
, b., F.R. b
lattner
 & n. F
riesen
: diploid Allium ramosum 
from east Mongolia: a missing link for the origin of the 
crop species A. tuberosum? erforsch. biol. Ress. Mongolei 
(halle/S.) 12 (2012) 415-424.
Additional Publications 2011
F
ragman
-S
apir
, o. & R.M. F
ritsch
: new species of Allium sect. Me-
lanocrommyum from the eastern Mediterranean. herbertia 
65 (2011) 31-50.
k
erndorff
, h., e. P
asche
, d. h
arpke
 & F.R. b
lattner
: three new spe-
cies of Crocus (Liliiflorae, iridaceae) from turkey. Stapfia 95 
(2011) 99-105.
F
ritsch
, R.M.: Lectotypification of Allium haemanthoides, A. steno-
petalum and A. reflexum (Allium L. subg. Melanocrommyum 
(Webb & berthel.) Rouy, amaryllidaceae). ann. naturhist. 
Mus. Wien, b 113 (2012) 261-262.
F
ritsch
, R.M.: illustrated key to the sections and subsections and 
brief general circumscription of Allium subg. Melanocrom-
myum. Phyton 52 (2012) 1-37.
G
urushidze
, M., J. F
uchs
 & F.R. b
lattner
: the evolution of genome 
size variation in drumstick onions (Allium subgenus Mel-
anocrommyum). Syst. bot. 37 (2012) 96-104.
k
eller
, e.R.J., F.R. b
lattner
, R.M. F
ritsch
, k. P
istrick
, a. S
enula
 & c.d. 
z
anke
: the genus Allium in the Gatersleben plant collections 
– Progress in germplasm preservation, characterization and 
phylogenetic analysis. Proc. Vi
th
 int. Symp. on edible Alliace-
ae, Fukuoka/Japan 2012. acta hortic. 969 (2012) 273-287.
k
eller
,  e.R.J., c.d. z
anke
, F.R. b
lattner
, c. k
ik
, h. S
tavělíková
, J. 
z
ámečník
, F. e
snault
, t. k
otlińska
, S. S
olberg
 & V. M
iccolis
: euRaL-
LiVeG: establishment of a european core collection by cryo-
preservation and virus elimination in garlic. acta hortic. 969 
(2012) 319-327.
k
erndorff
, h., e. P
asche
, d. h
arpke
 & F.R. b
lattner
: Seven new spe-
cies of Crocus (Liliiflorae, iridaceae) from turkey. Stapfia 97 
(2012) 3-16.
k
ohl
, S., J. h
ollmann
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