Secale cereale Mapping Projects. Secale cereale

Secale cereale, rye, is an important grain crop of family Poaceae. It grows well under various environmental conditions. It is cold hardy and an important crop in central Europe. Rye flour is used in bread making along with wheat flour which improves the flavor and the nutritional value of the bread. It is a source of several genes conferring disease resistance and salt tolerance for crop plants. It is known to inhibit weed growth. It has a large genome size of about 9120 Mb. Whole genome sequencing has not been attempted in this plant though large scale ESTs are available. Several linkage maps are also available which are useful in the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL). Triticale, a hybrid of rye and wheat, was developed to combine grain quality, productivity, and disease resistance of wheat with the vigor and hardiness of rye.