Barley
Barley is widely grown for animal and human consumption as well as for the production of beer and whiskey. Malting barley, used for beer and whisky production is a high value cereal crop in many countries.
Barley is a diploid cereal with a relatively large genome of approximately 5000 million basepairs (Mbp). Plans are underway to resolve the genome sequence of this important crop, based on recent advances in high throughput genome sequencing technology. There are many genetic and genomic resources available for this crop which are being applied for the improvement of a range of cereal crops.