LABILE · Leveraging Adaptive Barley Inflorescences from Limiting Ethiopian environments

Barley yield in rain-fed, variable climates depends on stable spikelet fertility. Yet in Ethiopian landraces, a striking labile (“irregular”) inflorescence phenotype reveals dramatic environmental sensitivity. Plants carrying labile can shift within a single spike between fertile and sterile spikelets, creating mosaics that resemble both two- and six-row types. This unique instability, long recognized in Ethiopian barley but never explained, offers a natural entry point to understand how the environment writes into floral fate.The LABILE project will link field ecology to gene function. First, I will quantify labile penetrance across Ethiopian altitude gradients (1500-3500 m) and relate missing florets per spike to night temperature, rainfall, and soils. Second, I will fine-map the causal interval on chromosome 2H, integrate PacBio HiFi sequencing of the Ethiopian parent, and test candidate genes with CRISPR edits in a six-rowed background. Third, I will develop a controlled-environment assay that mimics Ethiopian cool-night and warm-night regimes to resolve environmental tipping points and uncover the gene-regulatory basis. Finally, if resources permit, I will extend to haplotype sequencing of Ethiopian landraces and pilot chromatin profiling. The outcomes will be transformative: identification of the causal allele, diagnostic markers, and an easy field assay for penetrance, all enabling breeders to select for stable grain set under stress. Beyond barley, LABILE will establish a general strategy for decoding adaptive plasticity at the gene-environment interface. Conducted at CPSFG-IEB Olomouc with strong support from IPK Gatersleben (Germany), the fellowship will deliver advanced training in genomics, phenomics, and genome editing while strengthening international collaboration with Ethiopian partners. LABILE ultimately positions barley improvement for resilience under the climate extremes of tomorrow.