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 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7662 / SEEDWORLD.COM SEPTEMBER 2016 STATUS ENGLAND The tomato is one of the most valuable fruit crops in the world with an annual global value in excess of $50 billion. But it has a tendency to soften and go off far too soon. Professor Paul Fraser of Royal Holloway University of London Egham helped crack a mystery that has been both- ering fans of the common tomato for centuries. New research carried out by Fraser and Professor Graham Seymour of the University of Nottingham has identified a crucial enzyme that could solve the problem. “Our study shows how you can precisely alter fruit ripening properties without adverse effects on the chemi- cal composition of the fruit,” Fraser says. “In this way taste, color, and nutritional quality are not adversely affected and in some cases enhanced.” The research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Syngenta Seeds. It aimed to identify genes that might allow targeted control of the fruit’s softening, giving it a long shelf life. The results, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, could pave the way for new varie- ties of better tasting tomatoes that will last longer on super- market and grocery shelves. “In laboratory experiments we have demonstrated that if this gene is turned off, the fruit softens much world STATUS A look at seed industry developments around the globe. Around the world, researchers and policymakers are at work seeking to improve the return on investment for plant breeders, while farmers continue to learn about new practices that improve their yields. more slowly but still shows normal changes in color and the accumulation of taste,” explains Seymour. Charles Baxter from Syngenta adds: “This discovery has relevance for the develop- ment of new tomato varie- ties via conventional plant breeding and is a significant step forward in understand- ing processes involved in fruit development, allowing more refined control of this process in plant breeding.” He hopes that the research will now lead to wild tomato spe- cies being crossed with more conventional cultivated toma- toes as the search for a longer living tomato reaches its fruity climax. Source: The Villager. STATUS EUROPE The Pan-European Farmers’ Association (Copa-Cogeca) says that innovation in plant breeding should be further encouraged to help the European Union combat hunger and malnutrition worldwide. In March, HFFA Research GmbH conducted a study on the plant breeding sector’s contribution to EU farming in the past 15 years. According to the results of the study commissioned by the European Plant Technology Platform, a stakeholder forum for the plant sector that brings together members from industry, academia and the farming community, the EU would have needed 19 mil- lion more hectares of farm- land to produce the same amount of food with tradi- tional crops. “Innovation in plant breed- ing counts for a lot, enhanc- ing overall productivity in EU arable farming by 74 percent,” says Pekka Pesonen, Copa & Cogeca secretary general, adding that the EU’s produc- tivity gains could be used to help combat hunger and mal- nutrition around the world. The author of the study, Steffen Noleppa, says that plant breeding in the EU has had a positive impact on employment and environ- mental protection. The study also found that had it not been for innovative plant breeding techniques for the EU’s major arable crops, the bloc’s agricultural acreage would have expanded by more than 19 million hectares in the past 15 years. This would have had an enormous impact on natural habitats and green- house gas emissions. A total of about 3.4 billion tons of direct CO2 emissions have been avoided by genetic improvements, according to the report, which also noted that a positive biodi- versity effect was generated. Additionally, about 70,000 jobs have been created in the arable sector, and nearly 30 percent of the annual income of an EU arable farmer is due to plant breeding. Commenting on the report, Pesonen says that the genetic crop improvements