% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@INPROCEEDINGS{JunkerFrohn:1048739,
author = {Junker-Frohn, Laura and Hoffie, Robert and
Graeff-Hoenninger, Simone and Grimes, Samantha Jo and
Kumlehn, Jochen and Lauer, Ira and Müller, Boje and
Gronover, Christian Schulze and Torres-Monroy, Ingrid and
Deenen, Nicole van and Welters, Peter and Wiese-Klinkenberg,
Anika and Wolters, Beverley},
title = {{BIMOTEC} - {B}uckwheat {I}mprovement by {M}odern
{T}echnologies for the {E}stablishment of a {D}ual-{U}se
{C}rop},
reportid = {FZJ-2025-04854},
year = {2025},
abstract = {Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a globally grown
pseudocereal, that had been a staple food in Germany until
several decades ago, commonly grown due to its short growing
period and low input requirements. However, due to low
yields compared to cereal crops, it is nowadays hardly
cultivated in Germany, and merely used as catch crop due to
its beneficial effects on soil health. Consequently,
breeding of buckwheat was neglected, resulting in no
improvement of low and unstable yields. In recent years,
buckwheat gained rising interest as nutritious gluten-free
wheat-alternative, as grains are rich in proteins and
contain health stimulating secondary metabolites. These
phytochemicals, e.g. rutin and quercetin, are also present
in high levels in leaves and hulls. In Asia, they are used
for teas and the extraction of rutin for pharmaceutical
purposes. With longer growing seasons in Germany due to
global warming, buckwheat could be cultivated as second crop
in a double cropping system, which increases
agrobiodiversity and climate-resilience of agricultural food
production and generates additional income for farmers. As
buckwheat also thrives on marginal sites, its cultivation
could also contribute to the recultivation of opencast
mining areas.In BIMOTEC, we evaluate the potential of
buckwheat as dual-use crop to leverage both grains for food
production and residual biomass for the extraction of
biobased compounds, such as valuable phytochemicals from
leaves and hulls and lignocellulose from stems. Breeding of
dual-use plants offers great potential to establish
innovative bio-based value chains. To support buckwheat
production in Germany and develop climate-resistant local
buckwheat varieties, academic and industrial partners
collaborate in an interdisciplinary approach. At
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute for Plant Sciences
(IBG-2), the genotypic variation of root and shoot growth of
buckwheat is characterized using high throughput plant
phenotyping. Analysis of stress responses to drought and
nutrient deficiency support the identification of favorable
phenotypic traits and selection of resource-efficient
buckwheat cultivars for breeding. Bioinformatic gene
expression studies and rutin content analyses by the
Institute for Bioinformatics (IBG-4) enable the selection of
promising genotypes for the extraction of valuable
phytochemicals and identification of marker genes for
breeding of climate-resilient varieties. Fraunhofer IME
performs in-depth metabolite profiling for the discovery of
further valuable secondary metabolites, aiming to exploit
results for industrial applications to increase the economic
viability. The suitability of buckwheat residual biomass for
the extraction of valuable phytochemicals is investigated by
the industrial partner Phytowelt, who will scale up
extraction processes for rutin from buckwheat for a
subsequent biotechnological transformation into compounds of
higher value, thereby giving rise to the establishment of
novel value chains. University of Hohenheim performs
complementary field trials and on-farm cultivation of
buckwheat to validate process-oriented crop models for
different conditions. Crop models will facilitate
site-optimized crop management to maximize grain yield and
quality and thereby support the regional buckwheat
production. At IPK Gatersleben, genome editing technologies
for the biotechnological improvement of buckwheat are being
developed to adapt agronomically important traits, laying
the foundation for future modern breeding
initiatives.BIMOTEC’s interdisciplinary consortium
contributes to re-establish the regional production of
buckwheat and supports German plant breeders to resume their
work on this neglected crop. The development of buckwheat as
a dual-use crop for the production of bio-based compounds
from green biomass supports the development of innovative
value chains and contributes to the development of a
bio-based industry in Germany.},
month = {Mar},
date = {2025-03-05},
organization = {Annual Meeting of Plant Research
funded by BMBF 2025, Potsdam (Germany),
5 Mar 2025 - 7 Mar 2025},
subtyp = {Invited},
cin = {IBG-2 / IBG-4},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IBG-2-20101118 / I:(DE-Juel1)IBG-4-20200403},
pnm = {2171 - Biological and environmental resources for
sustainable use (POF4-217)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-2171},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)6},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1048739},
}