Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 57 building blocks that make up a strand of DNA. The organism’s complete set of DNA is its genome, or all of the genetic instructions that determines how the organism grows, develops and interacts with its environment. “The genome sequence is l ike a combination inventory, blueprint and roadmap for scientists to focus on genes and pathways that are most important for plant, animal and ecosystem health,” says Nevin Young, Ph.D, University of Minnesota plant pathology professor. “With alfalfa’s genome sequence, researchers know which genes are likely to affect disease resistance, digestibility and ability to produce natural nitrogen fertiliser. This will allow us to breed plants for higher quality and production.” As a legu me, al fal fa can satisf y its nitrogen needs through a naturally occurring symbiotic relationship with bacteria called rhizobia in the soil. This invaluable trait removes the need to use additional nitrogen fertilizer inputs to support plant growth. Understanding the genome sequence could lead to alfalfa plants with increased ability to survive in stressful environments such as drought and animal grazing. It could also produce higher biomass yields when baled as hay, extend its growing season, and adapt better to different soil types and nutrient levels. “We have made significant progress on the project as genomicists are putting the final pieces into place,” says Joann Mudge, Ph.D, National Center for Genome Resources senior research scientist. “Researchers may now be able to use the information for practical purposes to support plant breeding decisions.” Source: Noble Foundation STATUS FRANCE Following the January 2016 announcement of the production of a whole genome assembly for bread wheat, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), having completed quality control, is now making this breakthrough resource available for researchers via the IWGSC wheat sequence repository at URGI-INRA-Versailles, France. Wheat breeders and scientists around the world will be able to download and use this invaluable new resource to accelerate crop improvement programs and wheat genomics research. The dataset will facilitate the identification of genes associated with important agricultural traits such as yield increase, stress response, and disease resistance and, ultimately, will make possible the production of improved wheat varieties for farmers. Since the January announcement, the IWGSC project team has been fine-tuning the data so that the genome assembly released to the scientific community is of the highest quality possible. The new resource accurately represents more than 90 per cent of the highly complex bread wheat genome, contains over 97 per cent of known genes, and assigns the data to the 21 wheat chromosomes. This data release represents the IWGSC continued effort to produce a “gold standard reference sequence” — the complete map of the entire genome that precisely positions all genes and other genomic structures along the 21 wheat chromosomes. The wheat genome is large — five times that of the human genome — and complex, with three sets of seven chromosomes. “The IWGSC policy has always been to make all data publicly available as soon as they have passed the quality checks,” explained IWGSC executive director Kellye Eversole. “By doing so, the scientific community can start exploiting the data now while the Consortium progresses tow a rds a gold st a nda rd reference sequence, anticipated to be released in 2017.” Over the coming months, the IWGSC project team w i l l conti nue its work towards completing a high-quality, ordered sequence of the wheat genome that includes annotating and identifying the precise locations of genes, regulatory elements, and markers along the chromosomes, thereby providing invaluable tools for wheat breeders. The final result will integrate all genomic resources produced under the umbrella of the IWGSC over the last decade, including individual physical and genetic maps. Wheat is the staple food for more than a third of the global human population and accou nts for 20 per cent of al l calories consumed in the world. As the global population grows, so too does its dependence on wheat. To meet future demands of a projected world population of 9.6 billion by 2050, wheat productivity needs to increase by 1.6 per cent each year. In order to preserve biodiversity, water, and nutrient resources, the majority of this increase has to be achieved via crop and trait improvement on land currently cultivated rather than committing new land to cultivation. As for other major crops, a well-annotated reference genome sequence will be an invaluable resource towards this goal by providing the detailed maps of genes and gene-networks that can be improved through breeding. Source: IWGSC STATUS JAPAN Japanese scientists have discovered a simple genetic modification that can lead to more robust plants. Their findings are published in Plant & Cell Physiology. Previous studies of the same research team revealed the molecular mechanism that was controlling the biological clock of Arabidopsis plants. In their initial trials, they inhibited three pseudo-response regulator (PRR) genes, which led to delayed flowering resulting in larger size and improved adaptability. In the current study, the researchers modified a single PRR gene called PRR5-VP, which led to the same outcome as the initial study. Delayed flowering caused production of twice the plant’s biomass and greater resilience to stress. When exposed to freezing temperatures for one day, all of the control plants died, while only half of the PRR5-VP plants died. When exposed to drought for 16 days, all of the PRR5-VP survived, while almost all of the control plants were killed. Source: Plant & Cell Physiology STATUS CHINA Together with researchers from Nanjing Agricultural University in China, Tony Miller from the John Innes Centre (JIC) has developed rice crops with an improved ability to manage their own pH levels, enabling them to take up significantly more nitrogen, iron, and phosphorous from soil and increase yield by up to 54 per cent. Miller has been working with partners in Nanjing on how rice plants maintain pH under changing environments. His team found that the rice gene OsNRT2.3b, which creates a protein involved in nitrate transport, can switch nitrate transport on or off, depending on the internal pH of the plant cell. When this protein was overexpressed in rice plants, they were better able to buffer themselves against pH changes in their environment. This enabled them to take up much more nitrogen, as well as more iron and phosphorus. These rice plants gave a much higher yield of rice grain (up to 54 percent more yield), and their nitrogen use efficiency increased by up to 40 percent. T h i s new t e c h nolog y h a s b e en patented by PBL, the John Innes Centre’s innovation management company, and has already been licensed to three different companies to develop new varieties of 6 different crop species. Source: John Innes Centre