Israel is located at the southern end of the Fertile Crescent. This region is the center of origin of a number of wild ancestors of major crops such as wheat, barley, oats, legumes, olive, almond and more. These wild species, still growing in this region, serve as a rich gene pool for crop improvement with tolerance to drought and salinity and with resistance to different diseases.

Modern breeding, however, narrowed the genetic basis of our crops and rendered them vulnerable to such stresses.

The missions of the ICCI are focused at cereal crops and aim accordingly to conserve the natural biodiversity of cereal crops wild relatives threatened by land development and diminishing natural habitats; to evaluate the breeding value of these wild relatives and; to transfer genes of interest into modern crops.

These activities are of invaluable importance for successful crop cultivation. An example for this is a gene for resistance to crown rust of oats found by us in wild oats in Israel and was transferred to cultivated oats in the U.S. that resulted in a 25-30% yield increase and higher grain protein content. Another example are genes for barley powdery mildew found by us in wild barley in Israel that are currently included in barley breeding programs in southern Germany.

The research at the ICCI is further extended to the study of different aspects of pathogens of cereals and especially rust fungi. These obligate parasites co-evolved with their hosts over time. Consequently, cereal biodiversity of resistance genes is reflected in biodiversity of the virulence of the fungus.