stylistic:style_transfer, quality:correction, structural:reformatting, information:filtering, stylistic:tone
Genetics and breeding

Species of Avena can hybridize, and genes introgressed (brought in) from other "A" genome species have contributed many valuable traits, like resistance to oat crown rust. Pc98 is one such trait, introgressed from A. sterilis CAV 1979, conferring all stage resistance (ASR) against Pca.

It is possible to hybridize oats with grasses in other genera, allowing plant breeders the ready introgression of traits. In contrast to wheat, oats sometimes retain chromosomes from maize or pearl millet after such crosses. These wide crosses are typically made to generate doubled haploid breeding material; the rapid loss of the alien chromosomes from the unrelated pollen donor results in a plant with only a single set of chromosomes (a haploid).

The addition lines with alien chromosomes can be used as a source for novel traits in oats. For example, research on oat-maize-addition lines has been used to map genes involved in C4 photosynthesis. To obtain Mendelian inheritance of these novel traits, radiation hybrid lines have been established, where maize chromosome segments have been introgressed into the oat genome. This potentially transfers thousands of genes from a species that is distantly related, but is not considered a GMO technique.

A 2013 study applied simple sequence repeat and found five major groupings, namely commercial cultivars and four landrace groups.