Inst. für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Gruppe Kulturpflanzenwissenschaften, ETH Zürich We are a community of about 25 scientists, technicians, assistants and graduate students. Our general objective is to improve sustainable cultivation and product quality of arable crops by agronomic and genetic means. We are concentrating on cereals, particularly maize, wheat and spelt. Teams are focusing on sustainable cropping systems, the integration of model crops into those systems and their adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses. Analysis of relevant plant traits is aided by physiological and genetic means and by root image analysis. For rapid attainment of our breeding goals, in vitro androgenesis, gene transformation and QTL (quantitative trait loci) analysis are considered as important tools.