Barley has a number of unique features among our crop plants. It was one of the earliest plants to be domesticated and continues to play an important role in modern agriculture today. It is a versatile crop, used both for human nutrition and for animal feed, and plays an important role as an experimental model plant allowing advances in plant genetics, plant physiology, plant pathology, plant biochemistry, and more recently in plant biotechnology. In this introductory chapter, the key features of barley as both crop and model plant are considered.
Keywords: Barley; Biotechnology tools; Genetic resources; Genomic resources; Model cereal; Mutation breeding.