The Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement (ICCI)
Research Activities
The Institute for Cereal Crops Improvement (ICCI) at Tel Aviv University is conducting Research activities related to:
- The collection, preservation, exploitation and utilization of the wild relatives of barley, oats and wheat indigenous to Israel.
- Virulence structure of fungal pathogens inciting foliar diseases on barley, oats and wheat.
- Elucidation of the epidemiological and genetical basis of protection in wild populations of barley, oats and wheat against several rusts.
- The incorporation into cultivated barley, oats and wheat of different types of resistance to different rusts using wild germplasm.
- The genetic/molecular basis of virulence in Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici isolates on Lr26.
- Cereal biotechnology - the incorporation of utilizable traits into barley and wheat via genetic transformation.
- Breeding for disease resistance and improved quality in collaboration with Israeli and international breeding programs.
The Institute consists of:
- The Harold and Adele Lieberman Germplasm Bank and
- The Cereal Crops Improvement Division.
The Lieberman Germplasm bank consists of seed collections of wild relatives of barley. The collections have been made since the early 1970's in geographical/ecological regions throughout Israel. The collection includes the following species and entries:
I. Barley -
| Species | accessions |
| Hordeum spontaneum | 4,500 |
| Hordeum bulbosum | 1,000 |
| Hordeum vulgare | 500 |
II. Oats -
| Species | accessions |
| Avena sterilis | 2,000 |
| Avena sativa | 500 |
III. Wheat group -
Israeli Aegilops species:
| Species | accessions |
| Aegilops spp: | 3000 |
(Aegilops bicornis, Ae. biuncialis, Ae. kotschyi, Ae. longissima, Ae. searsii, Ae. sharonensis, Ae. speltoides, Ae. triuncialis and Ae. variabilis) |
Other non-Israeli Aegilops species:
| Species | accessions |
| Aegilopsspp: | 200 |
Triticum species:
| Species | accessions |
| Triticum dicoccoides | 2,500 |
| Triticum durum | 1,500 |
| Triticum aestivum | 1,500 |
Seeds are being kept at 10 degrees centigrade and 35% RH and are being reseeded every
10 years. The collection is being evaluated for the response to various fungal pathogens in
the seedling stage in greenhouses and under field conditions.
The Lieberman Germplasm Bank is conducting comparative investigations on in situ and
ex situ sampling. The entries are evaluated for a wide range of agronomic, pathological and,
ecological characteristics. Extensive studies are being conducted on hosts-parasites interactions
with an emphasis on evolutionary, pathological, genetical, breeding and agronomical aspects.
The Lieberman Germplasm Bank is affiliated with the National Germplasm Bank, and its
entries are registered and catalogued there.
back to ICCI
20 March 96 -
yiftah