ECOBREED partners from the Czech Agrifood Research Center (formerly CRI) in the Czech Republic, Saatzucht Gleisdorf GmbH in Austria and the Agricultural Institute have published a new study on “The Diversity of Morphological Traits and Seed Metabolomic Composition in Buckwheat Genetic Resources” in the journal Plants.

The published study investigated the effects of environmental conditions on growth, yield and biochemical composition of buckwheat at two locations (Austria and Czech Republic) over three growing seasons between 2019 and 2021. The researchers were able to observe significant variations in meteorological conditions between the two locations, including fluctuations in temperature and precipitation. These environmental factors then influenced several characteristics of the plants, for example their height, leaf size and seed weight, but also the nutrient content and the content of bioactive compounds, the most important being protein and rutin content. This study highlights the complexity of environmental influences on agronomic and nutritional traits of buckwheat, which is an important insight for future breeding programmes that aim to improve yield and nutritional value of this crop in changing climatic conditions.