Breeding of different crops, mainly cereals, but also brassicas, legumes and olive, for the development of new germplasm better adapted, higher value-added or new uses and increased knowledge of the genetic basis of traits of interest. This applies group techniques: traditional breeding, cytogenetics, gene mapping, transcriptomics, transgenesis and RNA interference among others.

Development and characterization of plant material in oilseed species for oil quality traits and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

Agronomy agricultural systems, with emphasis on science and engineering irrigation crop responses to water, soil conservation and water quality, agricultural meteorology.

From 1986 to 1999, the "Weed Science Group" was devoted to Weed Demography, Population Dynamics, Competition and Control. Since 1999, the Group name and research lines changed to "Remote Sensing for Precisión Agriculture and Weed Science".

Our aim is to increase the efficiency of agricultural systems in Mediterranean environments by using integrated management strategies of soil-borne pathogens to avoid the environmental damages and economic losses that they cause. This aim is reached by developing environmentally-friendly management strategies that assure both the efficiency of the agricultural systems and the yields, quality and health of their products.

We are involved in several research lines devoted to crop diseases caused by soil-borne pathogens, with emphasis on the study of: i) Biotechnology and molecular basis of plant-microbe interactions, both pathogenic and beneficial; ii) Genetic and pathogenic diversity of pathogen populations and development of molecular tools for in planta and in soil pathogen detection; and iii) Integrated management of diseases affecting crops economically relevant for the Mediterranean Agriculture, mainly Verticillium wilt of olive, Fusarium wilts of carnation and horticultural crops, downy mildew and broomra

The activity of the group focuses on gametic embryogenesis as a tool for the production of doubled haploid plants (DH). During this process, the gametic cells change their developmental pathway initiating an embryogenic route, allowings the production of complete homozygous plants in a single generation. The introduction of DHs in plant breeding programs can accelerate the development of new plant varieties. The group studies the morphological, genetics and molecular mechanisms that determine gametic embryogenesis. Different approaches, including high throughput techniques, are performed.

Our activity follows a two-pronged approach. A first course of action is devoted to the research and mobilization of favorable traits and underlying genes in local barley phytogenetic resources, through the use of genetic and genomic approaches. In a second, more applied activity, we make use of the knowledge acquired for the development of cultivars and technologies suitable for a sustainable agriculture.

This group studies relationships between organisms and their environment, emphasizing effects that global change trigger on biogeochemical cycles, their dynamics and structure of inland ecosystems.

ECOGEO completes an integrated and multidisciplinary research of the microbiota colonizing the lithic substrate, particularly from poliextreme environments. Our studies involve not only the analysis of diversity but also microhabitat physical-chemical and geochemical characterization, substrate bioreceptivity, and the dynamics of lithic microbial ecosystems. Microscopy and molecular biology are combined for genetic and ultra-structural characterization of diversity and its organization of their components.