Crop Genetic Resources, Conservation and Use Program

Tremendous progress has been made to advance our understanding of crop genome organization, variation, and evolution, particularly as it relates to potential discovery and exploitation of useful genic or genotypic diversity in plants. Critical to this progress has been advances in molecular biology/genetics, genomics, phenomics, and computational biology and data science as well as thoughtful applications of the theories of evolutionary biology and plant breeding. It is well recognized that a crop genome is a dynamic unit whose organization and variation has been molded by evolutionary processes and human intervention.

The Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and Use Program (CGRCUP) is a dynamic team of scientists and students working across the continuum of disciplines including genomics, genetics, bioinformatics, plant molecular biology, physiology, metabolomics, and pre-breeding. As an element of the Advanced Plant Technology (APT) initiative at Clemson University, the program is committed to advancing crop agriculture through use-inspired basic research.

• Research Objectives of the CGRCUP are:
  1. To identify and validate genes impacting evolution, domestication or crop improvement.
  2. To characterize and understand the relationship between DNA sequence variation and desirable phenotypes.
  3. To characterize molecular and phenotypic diversity in natural populations, landraces, and elite germplasm.
  4. To develop and test strategies to efficiently discover, conserve, and use variation in natural populations and genebank collections.
  5. To provide genetic tools, technologies, and methods to support national and international plant breeding programs.