PubMed · 2026-04-22
Researchers created a faster-growing version of the standard barley strain used in genetics labs, cutting its breeding cycle by 25% while keeping the traits that make it easy to genetically modify. This new strain, called GP-rapid, will let scientists develop improved barley varieties more quickly.
GP-rapid completes a generation in 63 days under speed breeding conditions, 25% faster than the original Golden Promise's 84-day cycle
The new strain carries only a ~0.6 megabase-pair introgression (a tiny DNA swap) at a single chromosomal location, making it nearly genetically identical to the original
GP-rapid retains full Agrobacterium-mediated transformability and CRISPR/Cas9 editing capability, confirmed in parallel transformation experiments
