4CF_Abstract_book
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This document provides information about the 4th EPSO conference titled "Plants for Life" taking place from June 22-26, 2008 in Toulon, France. It lists the sponsors and venue details. The conference will be held at the Club Belambra vvf La Badine facility and include plenary lectures, poster sessions, meals, an excursion on June 24th with 4 options, and a welcome reception on June 22nd and conference dinner on June 25th. Speakers are instructed to load presentations in advance and respect time limits. Wireless internet access is available for a fee.
![176
P 078
A. Matros1
S. Kaspar1
U. Seiffert2
Mock, H.-P.1
1
IPK-Gatersleben
Corrensstr. 3
06466 Gatersleben, Germany
Applied Biochemistry
2
SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee,
DD2, 5DA, Scotland, United
Kingdom, Mathematical Biology
Andrea Matros
IPK-Gatersleben, Applied
Biochemistry, Corrensstr. 3, 06466
Gatersleben, Germany
matros@ipk-gatersleben.de
Analysis of barley (Hordeum vulgare) grain development
using an LC-based approach
Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality
Developmental biology
As a consequence of increasing importance in the brewing industry, for
human and animal nutrition, and plant reproduction, intensive research on
cereal seed proteins has been in the focus of plant breeders. Many factors
affect embryo development and accumulation of storage compounds, being
the final stage of growth in cereals, and thus determine the final grain weight
and quality [1]. Therefore, understanding of the physiological, metabolic,
and biochemical aspects of the development of cereal caryopses is of big
interest. Recently, intensive work has been performed on monitoring
transport and accumulation of nutrients in plant embryos mainly based on
metabolite and gene expression analysis [2, 3]. But, despite numerous reports
on proteome analyses of mature and germinating barley seeds and seedlings,
kinetic analyses of developing barley grains are still rare.
We aim at qualitative and quantitative protein profiling to monitor changes
in protein composition during seed development using barley as model
system. In our presentation we will focus on LC-based label-free techniques
for comparative protein analysis. Barley seeds of various developmental
stages (5, 7, 10, 12, and 16 days after flowering) were analysed. Therefore,
whole crude extracts were digested and tryptic peptides directly analysed
using a nanoLC system combined with ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS (Waters). Data
acquisition was performed by a data independent strategy, called MS/MSE
.
For data processing and protein profiling Expression Software (Waters) was
utilised processing the intensities of molecular ions for quantification and the
fragment and molecular ions for identification. Quantification between any
two samples can be performed at either the peptide or protein level [4], in
which quantification at the protein level involves mapping of detected
peptides to proteins in the database. Besides, quantification at the peptide
level allows also groups of unidentified peptides.
For an elucidation of statistically significant and objective kinetic patterns
and biomarker identification multivariate statistics was applied. Prior to this,
some data pre-processing and initial visualization was performed to ensure
the quality of the data and the appropriateness of the subsequently applied
clustering algorithm. A number of computational intelligence based
clustering algorithms, such as Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Neural Gas
(NG), that have proven to be highly suitable in similar context, were applied
for the clustering task.
The obtained results indicate the validity of our approach for the elucidation
and visualisation of changes in protein patterns during developmental
processes. In fact, using LC-based approaches is especially advantageous
when investigating samples with high degrees of complexity and huge
dynamic range. The future task will be to transfer the developed analytical
methods from the scale of the whole organ down to the level of an individual
cell to monitor spatiotemporal patterns in dissected seed tissues.
[1] Barnabas et al., Plant Cell and Environment, 2008: 31, 11-38
[2] Wobus et al., Recent Res. Devel. Plant Mol. Biol., 2005, 2: 1-29
[3] Sreenevasulu et al., Plant Journal, 2006: 47, 310-327
[4] Silva et al., Anal. Chem., 2005: 77, 2187-2200
[5] Seiffert et al, (Eds.), 2005: Bioinformatics using Computational Intelligence Paradigms.
Springer, Heidelberg](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/02e02aac-fa93-4c0e-9396-090185900050-150621173332-lva1-app6891/85/4CF_Abstract_book-176-320.jpg)
![178
P 080
Jozef Balla
Petr Kalousek
Vilém Reinöhl
Stanislav Procházka
Stanislav Procházka
Mendel Univesity of Agriculture
and Forestry, Zemedelska 1
613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
prochazk@mendelu.cz
The use of pea (Pisum sativum L.) as a model plant
Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality
Developmental biology
Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important plant for the study of plant
productivity and also for plant growth correlations. The changes linked to the
release of axillary buds from apical dominance were studied on pea seedlings
cv. Vladan. Previously we have proved that polar auxin transport in the
inhibited axillary buds is not established and soon after decapitation export
of auxin from axillary buds was traced by the use of labeled [14
C]-IAA and
the establishment of polar auxin transport was visualized by
immunolocalization of PIN1 protein. Now we show that also in the stem
below and above the axillary bud there are significant changes in PsPIN1
and PsAUX1 gene expression due to canalization of the auxin exported from
the outgrowing bud. In the stem above the bud the expression of both genes
drops to zero in six hours after decapitation due to the absence of an auxin
source. In the stem below the bud a slower decrease of gene expression and
after six hours an increase due to the auxin exported from the outgrowing
bud could be observed.
This work was supported by grants of the Ministry of Education CR – 1M06030.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/02e02aac-fa93-4c0e-9396-090185900050-150621173332-lva1-app6891/85/4CF_Abstract_book-178-320.jpg)
![229
Anti-inflammatory potential of thymol and carvacrol:
cyclooxygenase-2 in vitro assay
Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new
products
Phenolic monoterpenes are important constituents in essential oil of
numerous aromatic plants and spices such as oregano (Origanum vulgare),
marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) savory (Satureja thymbra), thyme
(Thymus vulgaris), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), fennel (Foeniculum
vulgare) and black cumin (Nigella sativa). These species are widely used in
traditional medicine against various microbial diseases and gastrointestinal
and inflammatory disorders (1). Many of their biological activities are
attributed to oxygen derivatives of p-cymene, such as phenols (thymol and
its isomer carvacrol) or quinones (thymoquinone, dithymoquinone).
Antimicrobial, antiangiogenic, antioxidative and analgesic activity of these
compounds was also confirmed by recent studies (1, 2, and 3). Inhibition of
cyclooxygenase–1 (COX-1) and COX-2 isoform by mentioned quinones as
well as thymol has been published (4). The comparison of inhibitory
potential of phenolic monoterpenes thymol and carvacrol against COX-2
enzymatic activities is reported here.
The anti-inflammatory assay was based on inhibition of conversion of [14
C]
radioactive arachidonic acid to its products prostaglandins catalyzed by
COX–2. The inhibition was monitored as concentration of prostaglandin E2
and D2 as the main products of the COX reaction in our conditions. The
identification and quantification of the metabolites were performed by HPLC
on C18 reversed phase column with an on-line radioactivity flow detector.
IC50 values and percentage inhibition of different thymol and carvacrol
concentrations were compared with standard COX-2 inhibitors indomethacin
and NS-398 as control samples. Student’s two tailed t-test was used for
calculation of statistical significance and IC50 values were determined by
regression analysis.
Carvacrol and thymol showed similar inhibition activity against COX-2.
Difference between IC50 of both tested phenolic compounds was negligible
(0.8 uM and 0.9 uM for carvacrol and thymol, respectively). Inhibitory effect
of both phenols and control substances was almost identical; there was
almost no difference between IC50 values of phenols, indomethacin (0.7 uM)
and NS-398 (0.8 uM). These results indicate relatively strong inhibition of
COX activity by both tested phenols, which is comparable with
commercially used drugs.
This work was supported by KJB400550705 and ME08070 project.
References:
1. Ali, BH., Blunden, G. (2003) Phytother Res 17: 299-305.
2. Faleiro, L. et al. (2005) J Agr Food Chem 53: 8162-8168.
3. Sosa, S. et al. (2005) Phytomedicine 12: 271-27.
4. Marsik et al. (2005) Planta Med 71: 739-742.
P 131
Petr Marsik
Premysl Landa
Marie Pribylova
Ladislav Kokoska
Tomáš Vaněk
Tomáš Vaněk
Laboratory of Plant
Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory
of Institute of Experimental
Botany AS CR, v.v.i. and
Research Institute of Crop
Production, v.v.i., Rozvojova 263,
165 02 Prague 6 - Lysolaje, Czech
Republic
vanek@ueb.cas.cz](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/02e02aac-fa93-4c0e-9396-090185900050-150621173332-lva1-app6891/85/4CF_Abstract_book-229-320.jpg)
4CF_Abstract_book
- 1. 1 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm SPONSORS The 4th EPSO conference is sponsored by: INRA Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Plants and Plant Products division France Syngenta Schwarzwaldallee 215 CH-4058 Basel Switzerland Monsanto Company 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd. St. Louis, MO 63167 USA BASF Plant Science GmbH Carl Bosch Str. 64 D-67117 Limburgerhof Germany CEA, Direction des Sciences du Vivant Institut de Biologie Environnementale et Biotechnologies CEA Cadarache BP 177, 13108 Saint-Paul-des-Durance France Bayer CropScience Technologiepark 38 9052 Gent Belgium
- 2. 2 Dow AgroSciences Schuman Roundabout 6 (5) 1040 Brussels Belgium KWS Saat AG Grimselstr. 31 D-37555 Einbeck Germany Plant Bioscience Ltd Norwich Research Park Colney Lane Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7UH UK Wiley-Blackwell 9600 Garsington Road Oxford OX4 2DQ UK Springer SBM NL – Plant Molecular Biology P.O. Box 17 3300 AA Dordrecht The Netherlands Limagrain BP1 63720 Chappes France Green Gate Gatersleben Weinbergweg 22 D 06120 Halle (Salle) Germany
- 3. 3 ASPER BIOTECH Oru 3 Tartu 51014 Estonia Cell Press 600, Technology Square, 5th Floor Cambridge, MA 02139 UK EMBO Postfach 1022.40, D-69012 Heidelberg Germany Taylor & Francis 2 Park Square Milton Park Abingdon, OX14 4RN UK Decagon Devices, Inc. 2365 NE Hopkins Court Pullman WA 99163 USA Regent Instruments Inc. 2672, chemin Sainte-Foy Québec, QC, G1V 1V4 Canada Emendo Bioscience Ltd PO Box 129 Boston, Lincolnshire, PE20 2ZD UK
- 4. 4 The Royal Society 6-9 Carlton House Terrace SW1Y 5AG London UK KEYGENE N.V. P.O. Box 216 6700 AE Wageningen The Netherlands FESPB - The Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology
- 5. 5 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Table of content Editorial note 7 Conference information 9 Conference programme 15 Information on EPSO personal membership 23 Speaker abstracts (S 001 – S 053) 27 List of poster abstracts 83 Poster abstracts (P 001 – P 134) 97 List of participants 233
- 6. 6
- 7. 7 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Editorial The European Plant Science Organisation, EPSO, has established itself as a platform for dialogue for all that have an interest in plant sciences. This includes its members, academia, and related stakeholders such as industry, consumer representatives and the general public. EPSO aims to: • Increase impact and visibility of the European plant science community • Articulate the vision of the European plant science community for the future and advise on decisions of funding agencies at the European and national level on long term strategies to support plant science • Communicate with academia, industry and the general public to ensure independent dissemination of plant science information • Contribute to tighten the link between plant science and the development of agriculture, horticulture, forestry and ecology. Members of EPSO are 168 academic organisations from 26 countries, such as institutes and universities, and over 1000 personal members. They interact with the EPSO observers from industry and other related organisations. EPSO has links to specialised organisations in the area of plant and life sciences in Europe, and plant science organisations worldwide. The EPSO Conferences, the European Plant Sciences Forum, play a vital role in contributing to the development of plant sciences in Europe to ensure that they remain • On the forefront of plant sciences worldwide • Beneficial to humankind and our environment • Valuable to society at large • Committed to ethics. We are delighted to welcome you to the 4th EPSO Conference to actively take part in the debates that will have a significant impact on the most crucial aspects of plant science and its contribution to our society. This conference brings together world leading plant scientists from 34 countries from Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, USA and Vietnam to discuss cutting edge science and organise networks in four thematic areas: • Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity • Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture • Improving plant product quantity and quality • New products Representatives from academia, industry and politics discuss socially relevant topics, such as • Plant science in Europe – science policy • The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture We wish you an enjoyable conference in the inspiring surroundings of the Giens peninsula. At the heart of a 34 hectares pine-wood forest, encircled by small coves, this is one of the most beautiful sites on the Côte d’Azur. We would like to thank our French colleagues, the organising committee and the conference secretariat for their enthusiasm in preparing this conference. Karin Metzlaff, EPSO, Brussels Hélène Lucas, INRA Versailles, France
- 8. 8
- 9. 9 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Conference information
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- 11. 11 Venue Club Belambra vvf La Badine 406 avenue de l’Esterel Presqu’île de Giens 83400 Hyères Tel: +33 (0)4 94 58 36 60 Fax: + 33 (0)4 94 58 96 38 E-mail: giens.groupesseminaire@belambra-vvf.fr Web: www.belambra-vvf.fr Belambra VVF club “La Badine” is a residential village, located in sumptuous Mediterranean surroundings at the end of Giens peninsula, facing the Gold islands. At the heart of a 34 hectares pine-wood forest, encircled by small coves, this is one of the most beautiful sites on the Côte d’Azur, only 15 minutes away from the Toulon-Hyères airport. Tranfers to and from airports, stations, or any other place can be arranged for you. We strongly advise you to book your transfer to and from the conference venue before the start of the conference. Pre-booked transfers always get priority to other requests. You can complete the travel reply form at www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008/Travel_to_VVF_Giens.pdf and send it back to Katrien Molders, EPSO Conference secretariat, Tel/Fax: +32 2 213 62 63/69, Katrien.Molders@epsomail.org. All information on traveling to and from the conference venue can be found at the same link. Should this not be possible, contact us during the conference at the registration desk in front of the plenary lecture room (salle Fernandel), we will try to arrange a transfer on the spot (without guarantee). Conference facilities: 1. Lecture room: room “Fernandel” pavillon central, level -1 2. Poster room I: rooms “La capte + Bergerie + Tour Fondue” pavillon central, level -1 3. Poster room II: room “Porquerolles” pavillon central, level -1 4. Restaurant: next to the VVF reception desk pavillon central, level 0 5. Registration desk: in front of the plenary lecture room (Fernandel) pavillon central, level -1 For registration, social programmes, excursions, transfers and shuttle service. 6. Conference secretariat: room “Madrague” pavillon central, level -1 Please deliver your presentation files here at least 2 hours before the onset of your session. We assist with any management issues and other questions you might have. Four computers with internet connection are available here for participants. For wireless internet access see page 13. Opening hours: from 8:00 to 20:00. 7. VVF reception desk: pavillon central, level 0 Check in and check out, wireless internet connection, taxi (should the conference vans not be available), send faxes, print documents etc. 8. Welcome reception at the beach 9. Excursion start In your participant bag you will find a detailed map of the venue indicating the exact location of these conference facilities. Registration The registration desk will be located in front of the lecture room (Fernandel) at the -1 level of the “pavillon central”. Registration starts on Sunday 22 June 2008 at 13:00.
- 12. 12 Opening hours of the registration desk: Sunday 22 June: 13:00 – 19:30 Monday 23 June: 08:00 – 19:30 Tuesday 24 June: 08.00 – 11:00 and 17:00 – 19:30 Wednesday 25 June: 08:00 – 19:30 Thursday 26 June: 08:00 – 14:00 Posters The poster rooms are: Poster room I: La capte + Bergerie + Tour Fondue pavillon central, level -1 Poster room II: Porquerolles pavillon central, level -1 The size of the poster boards is 100 cm (width) x 200 cm (length). The poster boards are made of wooden panels in which it is forbidden to make holes. Therefore, posters can only be attached with tape or blue tack.You are not allowed to use pins for attaching your poster. The poster boards have the same numbering as the posters in the abstract book. In addition, the poster author and numbers list will be displayed in the poster room to guide you to the poster board reserved for you. Posters can be installed on the boards from 13:00 on Sunday 22 June 2008 and should be set up latest by 10.30 the next morning. Posters can be viewed from Sunday on throughout the conference and should be removed at the end of the meeting by Thursday noon. Poster sessions will be held on: - Monday evening 23 June from 20.30 to 22.30. Posters with even numbers should be attended from 20.30 to 21.30, those with uneven numbers from 21.30 to 22.30. Drinks will be served in the poster room. - Tuesday evening 24 June from 20.30 to 22.30. Posters with uneven numbers should be attended from 20.30 to 21.30, those with even numbers from 21.30 to 22.30. Drinks will be served in the poster room. A jury will select the best three posters for a poster price awarded at the conference dinner. Speakers The presentations will be shown on Windows Vista-PCs / Ms Office 2007. The presentations should be Microsoft PowerPoint either .ppt, .pptx, .pps or .ppsx, alternatively you can bring presentations converted to Adobe pdf. Movies can be shown on Apple QuickTime. The files can be brought as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or USB-stick. For all further plug-ins, software and for all other technical questions contact Markus Fauth at m.fauth@cellbiology.uni-frankfurt.de. If you wish Markus Fauth to test-run your presentation on the conference computer before the conference, you can send it before Wednesday 18 June to Markus by email. Recommendations for Mac-users: - As the presentations will be shown on a PC environment, we recommend bringing a pdf-presentation as back-up. This should eliminate most compatibility problems. - When editing a picture file (e.g. jpeg), please edit it on the original file outside PowerPoint and re-import it to PowerPoint instead of editing the picture directly in PowerPoint. - If you have movies or clips, please bring them also as separate files so they can be imbed freshly if a problem occurs. A good way to circumvent problems is to test the presentation on windows PC in your institute before going to France. Speakers are requested to load and test their presentation on the conference PC at least 2 hours before the onset of their session. This can be done on Sunday between 14:00-15:00 and 16:30-16:45 and all other days between 8:00–8:15; 10:30-10:45 (not on Tuesday); 13:00-13:15 (not on Tuesday); 14:45-15:00 (not on Tuesday) and 17:00-17:15 directly at the projection desk in the lecture room (responsible person is Markus Fauth).
- 13. 13 Time slots available for presentation and discussion are stated in the programme following your name. We trust you respect the time slots, to have sufficient time for discussion, in the interest of all conference participants. Internet access Wireless internet will be available in the VVF reception area (pavillon central, ground level) and is charged only for the time you access the wireless internet. Therefore we recommend the conference participants to bring a laptop set up with wireless internet connection facilities and to buy access for 24 hours (15€) or alternatively 1 hour (5€) or 30 minutes (3€). When the time you bought is used up, you can buy a new ticket. In addition, 4 computers with internet connection and 4 internet cables for laptops will be available for conference participants at the conference secretariat between 8:00 and 20:00h. It will not be possible to connect to the internet from your room. Coffee breaks, lunch and dinner Lunch and dinner will be offered in the restaurant, level 0 of the pavillon central. Please, bring the correct meal ticket for every meal. On the excursion day Tuesday 24, all participants can pick up a lunch bag at the VVF reception desk (before leaving for the excursion). Please bring the correct ticket to the VVF reception desk. Coffee breaks (see programme) will be held on the outside terrace of the bar/restaurant at level 0 of the pavillon central. Welcome reception The welcome reception will be held at the beach on Sunday evening 22 June 2008 at 19:30 and will be followed by a dinner at the restaurant. Conference dinner Wednesday 25 June 2008 at 20:00 at the Restaurant and Terrace. We would like to invite all registered participants, registered accompanying persons and invited speakers to attend the conference dinner, which is included in the registration fee. Please, bring the correct meal ticket. Excursions Tuesday 24 June 2008 from 11:00 to 17:00. You can choose between four different excursions. Participating in an excursion is optional and included in the registration fee. However you can only participate if you inscribed yourself for one of the excursions by sending the excursion reply form to the EPSO conference secretariat before the start of the conference. You can download the excursion information and reply form at www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008/4CF_Excursions_Web.pdf. All excursions will start at 11.00h at the parking close to the VVF reception building and will finish at the same place approximately at 17.00h. Do not forget to pick up your lunch bag at the VVF reception desk before leaving. Please, bring the appropriate meal ticket. Option 1: Porquerolles Island, part of the Golden Islands (walk and boat) 20 minutes walk from the conference venue to “La Tour Fondue”, from here by boat to the Porquerolles Island. Visit of the Island: tour of the village, walk through the oliver grove towards the 14th century Fort Ste Agathe with its underwater archaeological exhibition. Return to the village and visit the Saint Anne’s church (1850), patron saint of the Islands. You can also choose to discover the Island on your own, please check when the boat will return. Option 2: Toulon (city, port and boat)
- 14. 14 Toulon, hosting the main French naval base, was built in one of the most beautiful Mediterranean bays. We visit this beautiful bay by boat, and then there is free time to visit the port or the old city district. Option 3: Vignes et Terroir (Vine and land) Visit of an olive oil mill “Le Moulin du Partegal” in La Farlède (http://www.moulindupartegal.com/): olive oil, tapenade and anchoiade production. Visit the old and the new mill and discover how the products are made. Outside visit of the waterwheel and the oliver grove. Tasting of oils, tapenade and anchoiade. Afterwards visit of a winery “chateau et cave: Côte de Provence”, followed by a wine tasting. Option 4: Hiking (choice between 3 different hikes) Hike 1: Discover the rich fauna and flora of the “La Presqu’Ile de Giens” with an official guide from the National Forest Office (ONF). Hike 2: Nature walk with an official guide of the National Forest Office (ONF) in the “Massif des Maures”. Hike 3: Bird watching: Guided discovery of numerous bird species and their habitat at the saltpans of La Presqu’Ile de Giens, with a guide from the Bird Protection League. Accommodation Accommodation has to be booked (and paid) before the start of the conference via the EPSO Conference Secretariat. Contact Katrien Molders at Katrien.Molders@epsomail.org or Tel/Fax: +32 2 213 62 63. Transport Two minibuses (and if needed larger buses) will be available at the conference venue to take you to and from airports, stations and other places for a charge of 0.3€ per kilometer per person. The transfer fee has to be paid in cash to the driver or at the registration desk before departure. The conference venue is located near Toulon at: - approx. 20 km from the Toulon airport (charge for a single way transfer is 5€) - approx. 80 km from the Marseille airport (charge for a single way transfer is 25€) - approx 150 km from the Nice airport (charge for a single way transfer is 45€) Please, book your transfer to and from the conference venue before the start of the conference. Pre-booked transfers always get priority to other requests. You can complete the travel reply form at www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008/Travel_to_VVF_Giens.pdf and send it back to Katrien Molders, EPSO Conference secretariat, Tel/Fax: +32 2 213 62 63/69, Katrien.Molders@epsomail.org. All information on traveling to and from the conference venue can be found at the same link. For a transfer to a city tour or similar, we will include this as far as possible. If we do not have vacant cars, please contact the VVF reception desk to book a taxi for you. Currency The currency in France is EURO. Coins: 2 and 1 Euro; 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 Eurocent Bank notes: 50, 20, 10 and 5. Bank notes of 100, 200 and 500 EURO are often refused, due to forgeries circulating The exchange rate of 1€ is approximately: 1,5 USD; 158 JPY; 1,64 AUD; 2 NZD; 0,8 GBP. Conference secretariat Mrs. Katrien Molders Office phone: +32 (2) 213 62 63 on working days before 20.06 and after 27.06 from 9:00 – 17:00 Mobile phone: +32 (0)473 88 27 29 every day from 20.06 to 27.06 Miss Jacqueline Breitlid Mobile phone: +32 (0)473 68 20 65 every day from 20.06 to 27.06 EPSO office +32 (0)2 213 62 60 on working days from 9:00 – 17:00
- 15. 15 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Conference programme
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- 17. 17 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Sunday 22 June 2008 From 13:00 Registration 15:00 – 16:30 16:30 – 17:00 17:00 – 19:00 Opening and Keynote Chair: Karin Metzlaff, Brussels, BE & Hélène Lucas, Versailles, FR Break Plant Science in Europe – Science Policy Chair: Wilhelm Gruissem, Zürich, CH & Karin Metzlaff, Brussels, BE Speakers: Karin Metzlaff and Hélène Lucas (10 min) Executive Director of EPSO Head of Genetics and Plant Breeding Division, INRA and Local Conference Organiser Welcome from EPSO André Le Bivic, FR (10 min) Deputy Scientific Director, Department of Life Sciences, CNRS François Houllier, FR (10 min) Scientific Director for Plant and Plant Products, INRA Richard B. Flavell, USA (60 min) S 001 Chief Scientific Officer of Ceres, Inc. - The Energy Crop Company What do we need to improve crops faster and cheaper? Speakers: Timothy Hall, EU (25 + 5 min) S 002 Acting Director of Directorate Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology, DG Research The knowledge-based bio-economy from a “plant” perspective Babis Savakis, GR (25 + 5 min) S 003 Senior Advisor to the President of the ERC The European Research Council: A benchmark for frontier research funding in Europe Wilhelm Gruissem, CH (25 + 5 min) S 004 President of EPSO Plant science in Europe – Breaking new ground Mike Gale, UK (25 + 5 min) S 005 Member of the CGIAR Science Council Plant science, the basis for farm, food, non food and energy 19:30 – 22:30 Welcome Reception Monday 23 June 2008 8:30 – 10:30 Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Chair: Catherine Feuillet, Clermont- Ferrand , FR Speakers: Catherine Feuillet, Clermont-Ferrand , FR (30 + 5 min) A glimpse into the impossible: physical mapping of the giant hexaploid wheat genome using a chromosome based approach S 006 Graham Moore, Norwich, UK (25 + 5 min) S 007 It’s not size but coordination that matters Joachim Messing, Piscataway, USA (25 + 5 min) S 008 Evolution of grasses by comparative genomics
- 18. 18 Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon, Evry, FR (15 + 5 min) The grapevine genome sequence suggest hexaploïdization in major angiosperm phyla S 009 10:30 Coffee Break 11:00 – 13:00 Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Chair: Stephen Hopper, Kew, UK Speakers: Stephen Hopper, Kew, UK (30 + 5 min) S 010 Rethinking agriculture and urban green space management: plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Simon Hiscock, Bristol, UK (25 + 5min) S 011 Hybrid speciation in flowering plants Thomas Städler, Zürich, CH (25 + 5min) S 012 Assessing demographic history in a population-genetic framework: A multilocus case study in wild tomatoes Benjamin Kilian, Gatersleben, DE (15 + 5 min) S 013 A dispersed-specific model of plant domestication 13:00 – 15.00 13:45 – 14:45 Lunch SEB Careers Workshop Making the most of your research position 15:00 – 17:00 Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Chair: Ulrich Schurr, Jülich, DE Speakers: Ulrich Schurr, Jülich, DE (5 min) Introduction Franco Miglietta, Firenze, IT (25 + 5 min) S 014 From ecosystems to genes: understanding the diversity of plant response to elevated CO2 Andrew D. Friend, Cambridge, UK (25 + 5 min) S 015 Impacts of global environmental changes on the distribution of plant production to 2100 Bruce Osborne, Dublin, IE (25 + 5 min) S 016 Using comparative assessments of net ecosystem exchange and carbon sequestration to identify mitigation options for managed ecosystems Shravani Basu, Nottingham, UK (15 + 5 min) S 017 Promoting indigenous crops as a tool for tackling climate change and food insecurity in semi-arid Africa 17:00 Coffee Break 17:30 – 19:30 Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture Chair: Robert Watson, London, UK Speakers: Robert Watson, London, UK (20 min) S 018 Is multifunctionality the future of agriculture or simply a trade issue? Tim Lang, London, UK (15 min) S 019 A food system which ticks all the policy boxes: Can it be done? What would it look like? Is anyone pushing for it? Matin Qaim, Göttingen, DE (15 min) S 020 Economic consequences of Golden Rice Joachim Schiemann, Braunschweig, DE (10 min) S 021 Regulation and risk assessment of transgenic plants at European level Discussion (60 min) 19:30 – 20:30 Dinner
- 19. 19 20:30 – 22:30 Chaired Poster Session I with drinks 20:30 – 21:30 Even poster numbers will be attended 21:30 – 22:30 Uneven poster numbers will be attended Tuesday 24 June 2008 8:30 – 10:30 Improving plant product quantity and quality I: Developmental biology Chair: Ottoline Leyser, York, UK Speakers: Ottoline Leyser, York, UK (25 + 5 min) S 022 Regulation of shoot branching Enrico Coen, Norwich, UK (25 + 5 min) S 023 Modelling genes, growth and form in plants Björn Sundberg, Umeǻ, SE (25 + 5 min) S 024 Wood development – what do plant hormones do? Raffaele Dello Ioio, Rome, IT (15 + 5 min) S 025 Cytokinins control root meristem activities and root growth by antagonizing auxin action 10:30 Coffee Break 11:00 – 17:00 Excursion 17:30 – 19:30 Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture I: Reducing fertilisers Chair: Mark Stitt, Golm, DE Speakers: Mark Stitt, Golm, DE (30 + 5 min) S 026 Genomics analysis of responses to nutrients Javier Paz-Ares, Madrid, ES (25 + 5 min) S 027 Phosphate starvation signalling in plants Nicolaus von Wirén, Hohenheim, DE (25 + 5 min) S 028 Nitrogen uptake and signaling networks Heike Schneider, Jülich, DE (15 + 5 min) S 029 A new approach for imaging nutrient distributions in plant tissue using time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy 19:30 – 20:30 Dinner 20:30 – 22:30 Chaired Poster Session II with drinks 20:30 – 21:30 Uneven poster numbers will be attended 21:30 – 22:30 Even poster numbers will be attended Wednesday 25 June 2008 8:30 – 10:30 Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture II: Reducing pesticides Chair: Jonathan Jones, Norwich, UK Speakers: Jonathan Jones, Norwich, UK (30 + 5 min) S 030 Monitoring and manipulating information flow at the host/pathogen interface Sophien Kamoun, Norwich, UK (25 + 5 min) S 031 Filamentous pathogen effectors Frank Takken, Amsterdam, NL (25 + 5 min) S 032 Resistance proteins: scouts of the plant innate immune system Montserrat Solé, Barcelona, ES (15 + 5 min) S 033 A family of bacterial effectors promote disease by interfering with plant MAP-kinases 10:30 Coffee Break 11:00 – 13:00 Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture III: Reducing water input Chair: Peter Langridge, Glen Osmond, AUS Speakers: Peter Langridge, Glen Osmond, AUS (30 + 5 min) S 034 Genetic and genomic approaches to deal with subsoil constraints to yield Jian-Kang Zhu, Riverside, USA (25 + 5 min) S 035 Small RNAs and epigenetic regulation in abiotic stress resistance
- 20. 20 François Tardieu, Montpellier, FR (25 + 5 min) S 036 An integrated approach of tolerance to water defecit involving precise phenotyping and modelling Laszlo Szabados, Szeged, HU (15 + 5 min) S 037 Controlled cDNA overexpression system to isolate novel stress genes in Arabidopsis. 13:00 – 15:00 13:45 – 14:45 Lunch SEB Careers Workshop Identifying and selling your skills 15:00 – 17:00 Improving plant product quantity and quality II: Improving yield Chair: Lothar Willmitzer, Golm, DE Speakers: Lothar Willmitzer, Golm, DE (30 + 5 min) S 038 Metabolic composition and biomass Ian Bancroft, Norwich, UK (25 + 5 min) S 039 The identification of molecular markers for yield components Wim Van Camp, Gent, BE (25 + 5 min) S 040 Yield increase by transgenic approaches Teresa Penfield, York, UK (15 + 5 min) S 041 Increasing artemisinin yield in Artemisia annua L. 17:00 Coffee Break 17:30 – 19:30 Improving plant product quantity and quality III: Food and feed Chair: Kaisa Poutanen, Espoo, FI Speakers: Kaisa Poutanen, Espoo, FI (30 + 5 min) S 042 How to optimally exploit grains for food? Roberto Ranieri, Parma, IT (25 + 5 min) S 043 Food product innovation taking advantage of plant selection Søren K. Rasmussen, Frederiksberg, DK (25 + 5 min) Presentation of the white paper of the EPSO workshop on “The European Feed Value Chain” held in Copenhagen from 26 to 27 June 2007. S 044 Wessel van Leeuwen, Wageningen, NL (15 + 5 min) An Arabidopsis genetical genomics approach to improve phytonutrient quality in Brassica vegetable crops S 045 20:00 Conference Dinner Prices for the three best posters will be awarded Thursday 26 June 2008 8:30 – 10:30 New Products I: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Chair: Michael Bevan, Norwich, UK Speakers: Michael Bevan, Norwich, UK (30 + 5 min) S 046 Brachypodium distachyon genomics for bioenergy research Jay D. Keasling, Berkeley, USA (25 + 5 min) S 047 Engineering microbial metabolism for production of advanced biofuels Birgitte K. Ahring, Lyngby, DK (25 + 5 min) S 048 Second generation bioethanol production from lignocellulosic material Hélène Zub, Peronne, FR (15 + 5 min) S 049 Effect of early plant development and genotypic variation in frost tolerance for 3 species of Miscanthus 10:30 Coffee Break
- 21. 21 11:00 – 13:00 New Products II: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Chair: Yuri Gleba, Halle, DE Speakers: Yuri Gleba, Halle, DE (25 + 5 min) S 050 New materials from new plants Inge Broer, Rostock, DE (25 + 5 min) S 051 Biomaterials, synthesis of the biopolymer cyanophicin in tobacco and potato Dirk Bosch, Wageningen, NL (25 + 5 min) S 052 Controlling of quality of biopharmaceuticals in plants Melanie Oey, Potsdam, DE (15 + 5 min) S 053 High efficient synthesis in chloroplasts of a protein antibiotic active against human pathogenic bacteria 13:00 – 13:30 Closing Karin Metzlaff and Hélène Lucas Executive Director of EPSO Head of Genetics and Plant Breeding Division, INRA and Local Conference Organiser 13:30 Departure We would like to thank our committees and secretariat members for organising this conference: Members of the organising committee: Wilhelm Gruissem, Jacek Hennig, Dirk Inzé, Jonathan Jones, Hélène Lucas (local coordinator), Karin Metzlaff (EPSO coordinator), Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey, Pere Puigdomenech, Ulrich Schurr, Chiara Tonelli, Erkki Truve. Members of the local committee: Hélène Barbier-Brygoo (CNRS), Hélène Lucas (INRA), Jean-Christophe Glaszmann (CIRAD). Conference secretariat: Katrien Molders, AnnaKarin Hedin and Agnès Hubert
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- 23. 23 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Information on EPSO personal membership
- 24. 24 European Plant Science Organisation EPSO Personal Membership In July 2007, EPSO opened its membership to individuals interested in plant science and supporting EPSO’s vision. This opportunity is open to all nationalities, professions, career stages and age groups worldwide. Benefits for personal members are: Exclusive for personal members: • Access to EPSO News – the bimonthly newsletter – an excellent source of information on EPSO activities, EPSO members’ activities, EU funding and national funds open to foreign applicants. • Eligibility for students and for New Member States’ scientists to apply for an EPSO conference support grant. • Discounted registration fee to conference. • Use of the EPSO world wide Tutor Network - stay in touch while working abroad More activities important to personal members: • Apply to participate in the EPSO workshops (restricted to EPSO personal and institutional members) • Use the EPSO online portal at http://www.epsoweb.com/portal.php , a collection of links important for of plant scientists • Enter your profile and search the e-database of EPSO members (access restricted to EPSO personal and institutional members) • Submit job adverts for publication on the EPSO website and search the e-job listings The annual personal membership fee depends on the career stage: Professionals (people working in their profession); Post-docs (people with a PhD or Dr degree not working independently yet); and students (PhD students approaching a PhD or diploma degree, and undergraduate students approaching a bachelor, Master or Diploma degree; and school students). People working at EPSO member institutions or universities can become personal members free of charge Every 500 personal memberships not working at EPSO institutional members will have one representative at the annual general meeting. Personal members can elect one representative to join the EPSO board (the other board members are elected by the General Meeting). Class P members: individual persons with an interest in plant science CLASS Number of votes Number of representatives Number of Board Directors Annual membership fee for each member P 3 jointly for all Personal members 1 jointly for all Personal members 1 jointly for all Personal members Professionals: 100€ Post-docs: 60€ Students: 40€ Waved if working at EPSO institutional member
- 25. 25 European Plant Science Organisation Personal member registration form Complete and place in the “personal membership” box at the registration desk (or send it to EPSO after the conference by fax +32-2-213-6269 or e-mail epso@epsomail.org) Your details: First name: ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Last name: .………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Job title: …………………………………………………………………………………………………... Email address: ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. Institution: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. Career stage: □ Professional □ Post-doc – Please send a confirmation of your status signed by your group leader* □ Student – Please send a copy of your student card* *Post-docs and students will get a confirmation after receiving the proof of their career status. The proof should be sent by fax to +32 2 213 62 69 or by email to Ivana.Migliore@epsomail.org Address: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. City:……………………… Postal code:…………. Country:……………………………………………. Phone:…………………………Fax: ……………………Mobile:………………………………………… Weblink: …………………………………………………………………………………. Is your institute already an EPSO institutional member? YES / NO If not, would you like to receive information on institutional membership? YES / NO Define your EPSO login setting for the members only website: Username (of your choice): ……………………………………………………………………… Password (of your choice):……………………………………………………………………….. EPSO – Rue de l’Industrie 4 – 1000 Brussels – Belgium; Tel/Fax: +32 2 213 62 60/69; Email: epso@epsomail.org; web: www.epsoweb.org
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- 27. 27 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Speaker abstracts
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- 29. 29 What do we need to improve crops faster and cheaper? Keynote Societies continue to depend on improved plants to cope with the many critical problems associated with sustaining necessary food, energy and fibre supplies as well as managing the environment. Indeed now, more than for a very long time, there is a momentum for including agriculture and production of plants much more centrally in strategies for sustaining the planet and all its inhabitants, human and non human. This creates opportunities and responsibilities for the plant science communities. There have been major successes in plant breeding programmes but the speed of progress looks depressingly slow from the point of view of today’s needs and fast-moving science base. What do we need to do to improve crops faster and cheaper? We need much greater commitments to establishing the necessary infrastructure, public and private, for modern plant breeding that integrates the spectacular innovations of the past three decades into applied projects. Only when this occurs can the promise that plants and agriculture offer for sustaining the planet be fully realized. Without these commitments the gains from progress in plant science cannot be realized adequately by societies. What are the technical needs to make a plant breeding program go faster? The diversity in germplasm i.e the natural resources available for each crop, needs to be characterized much more extensively, so that all the forms of allelic and other variation are known and the links between the allelic variation and traits are known. We need to deploy the new DNA sequencing technologies as rapidly as possible to characterize genomes and their variants. The genetic basis of the major traits needs to be known so that breeders can target trait improvements rationally, using informed markers and sentinels and/or surrogate assays for speed and ease. We need to exploit knowledge across species, whether it is based on conservation of biochemical processes or genetic synteny. We need to be able to add genes and/or silence genes readily. All these and additional ones will be illustrated with an emphasis on improving high biomass crops that can serve as sources of energy for tomorrow’s world. S 001 Richard B. Flavell CBE, FRS Ceres, Inc. 1535 Rancho Conejo Blvd. Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 USA rflavell@ceres-inc.com
- 30. 30 S 002 Timothy Hall Directorate Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology DG Research European Commission B1049 Brussels Belgium Timothy.Hall@ec.europa.eu The knowledge based bio-economy from a "plant" perspective Session: Plant Science in Europe – Science Policy Funding for R&D has evolved from the first to the current 7th Framework Programme in terms of budget, the priorities for collaborative research, and to a certain extent modalities of funding. While for example, the agricultural research agendas in FP5 and FP6 were driven by wider concerns about food quality, the strategic orientation in FP7 takes a broader view to address equally food quality, sustainability and productivity issues as well as promoting research into new uses of plants and plant products. The 7th Framework Programme (FP7) is ambitious in scope and amount, providing through its various programmes support to collaborative research (COOPERATION), infrastructures (CAPACITY) , mobility and training (PEOPLE), as well as to bottom-up frontier research (IDEAS). Under the FP7 COOPERATION programme 1.9 billion EUR have been allocated to Theme 2 “Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology" with the aim of enhancing the development of the "Knowledge-based Bio-economy" (KBBE). The KBBE concept acknowledges the increasing importance of the "bio- sector" not only as a source of primary food production but also for the generation of renewable energy, high-quality materials and for industrial biotech applications based in particular on advances in life sciences and biotechnology. Accordingly, activities under Theme 2 are structured around the three headings: (1) Sustainable production and management of biological resources from land, forest and aquatic environments; (2) Food, health and well being; (3) Life sciences and biotechnologies for sustainable non-food products and processes. A strong and dynamic KBBE is considered as crucial to enhance sustainable economic growth and employment, and to find solutions to major global challenges such as climate change and its necessary mitigation, reducing the environmental footprints of agricultural production, finding alternatives to fossil fuel, food security and feeding an increasing world population, health issues and globalisation. The implementation of the KBBE is further promoted at European level through "policy" instruments, such as the European Life Sciences and Biotechnology Strategy and a LEAD-market initiative for bio-based products. In order to further maximise the output of increased but still limited EU research funding, it is vital that a more coherent approach is applied across Europe in terms of pooling research efforts, biological infrastructures and resources, where necessary also in collaboration with countries outside the EU. Equally important, synergies between national and EU research activities need to be further exploited. The European Technology platforms such as "Plants for the future" also have an important role to play in achieving greater coherence across Europe by focussing efforts on areas of high priority to industry and by bringing together different stakeholders.
- 31. 31 The European research council: a benchmark for frontier research funding in Europe Session: Plant Science in Europe – Science Policy The ERC is a nascent institution focused on delivering the Ideas Programme as an excellence initiative to reinforce frontier research in the European Research Area within the EC 7th Framework Programme. It supports with substantial grants individual researchers of any nationality and in all fields of science and scholarship, provided that they will work in a European Member State or Associated Country. Excellence of the proposal and the proposer are the only criteria for selection of applications. Two funding streams are implemented, the ERC Starting Grants for academically young investigators and the ERC Advanced Grants for accomplished investigators who are at the forefront of their fields. It is expected that in the next years ERC will become a world-leading funding agency for support of frontier “bottom-up” research. The lecture will summarize the origins of ERC, its structure, the outcomes of the first Starting Grants competition and the challenges that lie ahead. S 003 Charalambos (Babis) Savakis European Research Council Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus, London, U.K., SW7 2AZ b.savakis@imperial.ac.uk
- 32. 32 S 004 Wilhelm Gruissem President of European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) ETH Zurich Institute of Plant Sciences Universitaetstrasse 2 8092 Zurich, Switzerland wgruissem@ethz.ch Plant science in Europe – Breaking new ground Session: Plant Science in Europe - Science Policy Climate change, population growth, food crisis, energy shortage, loss of biodiversity…the media are abuzz with disconcerting news, and challenges that societies are facing seem to accelerate at an ever-increasing pace. Many of the challenges are linked to plants and their performance in natural and agricultural systems. How can we tackle these challenges to support sustainable growth and economic wellbeing, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact of agricultural production, meeting societal request for sustainability, and preserving healthy natural ecosystems and biodiversity? Common to all challenges is the need to increase public awareness of the critical importance of plant research to advance breeding, sustainable agriculture, horticulture and forestry, as well as our understanding of plant function in ecosystems. During the last few years we have witnessed major breakthroughs in understanding the molecular function of plants, the development of technologies to improve breeding and crop production, and the interaction of plants with their environment. Since EPSO was founded in 2000, the organization has become a strong advocate for plant research in Europe and an important voice to articulate the needs of plant scientists at national and European levels. Many tasks remain, and the EPSO vision of a strong European plant research and technology platform for sustainable future growth must become firmly embedded in public and political decision-making. Only then will rising public awareness and innovative plant science break new ground for Europe to lead the world in building a knowledge-based economy that can support sustainable development.
- 33. 33 Plant science, the basis for farm, food, non food and energy Session: Plant Science in Europe - Science Policy The increasing productivity of agriculture per ha, per man hour, per kg of external input and per animal has created ample opportunity for development of land use change that may lead to a substantial reduction in the environmental side effects of agriculture, ample opportunity to restore fragile ecosystems and expand European nature and forests. (Ground for choices, 1994). The possibilities for a productive agriculture and sophisticated European food system that may fulfill the changing needs of European consumers and producers are impressive. Productivity may increase per ha with at least 2-5 times, per kg of input through precision agriculture with at least 40% and pesticide use may be reduced with at least 70%, GHG emission may decrease with 80%. All this sounds as utopia, but is possible when the best ecological and best technical means are applied on the agriculturally speaking, best lands. Utopia is possible but may change in dystopia when big scale biofuel production is stimulated through regulation, tax measures or subsidies. The GHG reduction is, due to changed land use, very limited or negative and the land, water and nutrient use very substantial. The way to sustainable development in Europe is in agriculture and food and feed security possible but will be jeopardized when energy security through biofuel or biomass is promoted. S 005 Rudy Rabbinge Mike Gale Mike Gale CGIAR Science Council John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK mike.gale@bbsrc.ac.uk
- 34. 34 S 006 Etienne Paux * Pierre Sourdille* Jérôme Salse* Cyrille Saintenac* Fred Choulet* Philippe Leroy* Rudi Appels† Jaroslav Dolezel‡ Michel Bernard* Catherine Feuillet* *INRA GDEC, 234 Ave du Brezet 63100 Clermont-Ferrand, France † State Agricultural and Biotechnology Centre, Murdoch University, WA 6983, Australia ‡Laboratory of Molecular Cytogenetics and Cytometry, Sokolovska 6, 77200 Olomo, Czech Republic Catherine Feuillet INRA GDEC 234 Ave du Brezet F-63100 Clermont-Ferrand France catherine.feuillet@clermont.inra.fr A glimpse into the impossible: physical mapping of the giant hexaploid wheat genome using a chromosome based approach Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Together with rice and maize, wheat provides more than 60% of the calories and proteins for our daily life and their improvement for food and non food uses is critically important if we are to meet human needs in the next decades. Genome sequencing is a widely accepted mechanism to understand the molecular basis of phenotypic variation, accelerate gene cloning and marker assisted selection, as well as improve the exploitation of genetic diversity for efficient crop improvement. While rice and maize improvement is profiting already from information derived from their genome sequences, wheat is lagging behind without a genome sequence project underway. Bread wheat is grown on over 95% of the wheat growing area and has been chosen by the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC, www.wheatgenome.org) as a target for genome sequencing. However, with a genome size 40 times that of rice, it represents a challenge for molecular studies. Physical maps anchored to genetic maps are the substrate for genome sequencing and they provide efficient tools for marker development, map based cloning, QTL mapping, as well as for structural, functional, and comparative genomics studies. Currently, whole genome physical mapping is hampered by the size (16,000 Mb), allohexaploid nature, and high repetitive DNA content (~80%) of the wheat genome. Using laser flow cytometry and aneuploid lines, individual chromosomes or chromosome arms can be sorted at high speed thereby providing an alternative approach for a chromosome-based dissection of the wheat genome. In the framework of the IWGSC, we have developed a physical map of chromosome 3B, the largest wheat chromosome (1 Gb, 2.5 times the rice genome) and established the proof of concept for physical mapping of the 21 bread wheat chromosome through a chromosome based approach. The 3B physical map consists of 1,036 contigs with an average size of 783 kb that cover 811 Mb i.e. 82% of the chromosome. To date, the physical map is anchored to cytogenetic and genetic maps with 1,397 markers thereby providing a framework for efficient map based cloning and marker development through BAC end and contig sequencing. Application of the 3B physical map for studies of recombination, LD, genome composition, organisation, function, and evolution will be presented.
- 35. 35 It’s not size but coordination that matters Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Despite possessing multiple sets of chromosomes, hexaploid wheat and tetraploid wheat behave as diploids at meiosis. Correct pairing of homologous chromosomes is controlled by the Ph1 locus which stabilises their polyploid genomes. By exploiting comparative genomics and deletion mapping we have defined the Ph1 locus to a cluster of Cdk-like (CDKL2) genes containing a segment of heterochromatin. This dominant locus arose by gene amplification and insertion during wheat’s polyploidisation. The 5B locus suppresses the expression of the corresponding loci on the homoeologous chromosomes 5A and 5D. The Cdk-like genes show homology to Cdk2 in mammals. Cdk2 affects replication, chromatin remodelling and the recombinational machinery. It’s disruption causes non- homologous synapsis at meiosis in mammals. Our working hypothesis is that CDKL2 is functional similar to Cdk2 and this explains the Ph1 phenotypes observed. Ph1 affects replication, controls the remodelling of heterochromatin and the recombinational machinery, all important for stabilising the genome. References: Griffiths et al., (2006) Molecular characterisation of the Ph1 as a major chromosome pairing locus in polyploid wheat. Nature 439 749-752. Al-Kaff et al., (2007) Detailed dissection of the chromosomal region containing the Ph1 locus in wheat Triticum aestivum: with deletion mutants and expression profiling. Ann Bot. doi10.1093/aob/mcm252. Martinez-Perez et al., (2001) The Ph1 locus is needed to ensure specific somatic and meiotic centromere association. Nature 411 204-207 Prieto et al., (2004) Homologue recognition during meiosis is associated with change in chromatin conformation. Nature Cell Biol 6 906-908. Colas et al., (2008) Effective chromosome pairing requires chromatin remodelling at the onset of meiosis. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. USA in press. S 007 Graham Moore John Innes Centre Colney, Norwich, UK graham.moore@bbsrc.ac.uk
- 36. 36 S 008 Joachim Messing Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 190 Frelinghuysen Road Piscataway, NJ08854, USA messing@waksman.rutgers.edu Evolution of grasses by comparative genomics Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution The genomes of rice and sorghum have been sequenced and assembled into chromosomal molecules. The maize genome is being sequenced with more than half of its genes already anchored as sequence tags to its chromosomes. Conserved gene order between all three genomes (synteny), provides us with important insights in 50 million years of grass evolution. Progenitors of rice, sorghum, and maize split about 50 million years ago (mya), while progenitors of sorghum and maize only 11.9 mya. Despite the uneven distances between these genomes, rice and sorghum exhibit a greater degree of gene collinearity than sorghum and maize. It appears that the accelerated change of maize chromosomal organization was due to allotetraploidization. Allotetraploidization is a whole genome duplication event of two diverged although closely related species. Therefore, maize chromosomal regions match rice and sorghum regions at a ratio of 2:1, where the two maize homoeologous regions diverged further than between rice and sorghum. Collinearity or the lack of it permits us to reconstruct ancient chromosomal breakages and fusions, the shedding of centromeres, and the formation of new centromeres. It also allows us to distinguish between gene insertions and deletions. Besides gene duplications, transposable elements have played a major role in the diploidization of the maize genome and its size. While chromosome expansion occurred in sorghum and maize recently, they resulted in different chromosomal organizations of the two genomes.
- 37. 37 The grapevine genome sequence suggest hexaploïdization in major angiosperm phyla Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution The grapevine Vitis vinifera L. is in economic terms the principal fruit crop in the world. Its haploid genome is estimated to be about 500 Mb, organized in 19 chromosomes. The grapevine is the fourth plant whose genome sequence has been made public after A. thaliana, rice and poplar. Here we present a public consortium project that completed a 12X Whole Genome Shotgun sequence of a quasi-homozygous genotype, PN40024,which was derived from repeated selfings of Pinot Noir. All data were generated by paired-end sequencing plasmid, fosmid and BAC libraries of different insert sizes, using Sanger technology. Using a 8.4X coverage an intermediary assembly of 498 Mb was obtained, composed of 3830 scaffolds. Half of the assembly is represented by scaffolds longer than 1.9 Mb and a large majority of these are anchored on linkage groups. Different approaches revealed that approximately 41% of the grape genome is of repetitive/transposable elements (TE) origin. The proteome was determined by an annotation strategy reconciling proteins, cDNA alignments and ab initio predictions that led to an estimate of 30434 protein coding genes. Several large expansions of gene families with roles in aromatic features are observed. The grape genome was shaped by two ancient whole genome duplications, that were not followed by extensive rearrangements, thus enabling the discovery of ancestral traits and features of the genetic organization of flowering plants. S 009 The French-Italian Public Consortium for the Sequencing of the Grapevine Nuclear Genome1 Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon2 1 http://www.genoscope.cns.fr/exter ne/GenomeBrowser/Vitis/ 2 UMR INRA-CNRS-Université d’Evry de Recherches en Génomique Végétale, 2 rue Gaston Crémieux, BP5708, 91057 Evry cedex, France Anne-Françoise Adam-Blondon Grapevine Genomics UMR INRA-CNRS-University of Evry on Plant Genomics URGV, 2 rue Gaston Crémieux, BP5708 91057 EVRY cedex, France adam@evry.inra.fr
- 38. 38 S 010 Stephen D. Hopper Monique J.S. Simmonds Simon J. Owens Stephen Hopper Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB UK s.hopper@kew.org Rethinking agriculture and urban green space management: plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Climate change and the need to deal with carbon emissions through ongoing deforestation require fundamental rethinking of major global land uses in both regional and urban lands. Given that most of the world’s arable land is already sequestered for agriculture, people are attempting to move into marginal lands to continue to feed the world. This strategy has delivered marginal temporary gains but long-term damage to the biosphere. An alternative approach is to get better use out of the most productive lands through broadening the plant diversity used, particularly under rapidly changing climate. Here, we highlight how RBG Kew has experimented with introducing plant biodiversity into agricultural and urban lands, and worked with people in South Africa to domesticate new medicinal crops. While there are potent economic, political and cultural challenges to rethinking the model and implementing new approaches, we must, as a matter of urgency, foster significant research investment in this arena if we are not to further erode the global life support systems provided by plant diversity.
- 39. 39 Hybrid speciation in flowering plants Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Interspecific hybridization is a major force in plant evolution. Most hybrid speciation events are associated with an increase in the chromosome number (allopolyploidy), but hybrid speciation without a change in chromosome number (homoploid hybrid speciation) is also possible, although its occurrence appears to be less frequent. Notable examples of recent hybrid speciation have been described in the Poaceae (e.g. Spartina), Asteraceae (e.g. Senecio), and Rosaceae (e.g. Sorbus), which provide excellent model systems for studying speciation ‘in action’. In the genus Senecio there are recent examples of both homoploid and allopolyploid speciation. S. squalidus (Oxford ragwort) is a recent allopatric homoploid hybrid species that originated from material derived from a hybrid zone between S. aethnensis and S. chrysanthemifolius on Mt. Etna, Sicily. During its colonization of the UK in the last 150 years, S. squalidus has hybridized with native S. vulgaris (tetraploid) to create two new allopolyploid hybrid species S. cambrensis (allohexaploid), and S. eboracensis (allotetraploid). We are studying genetic changes to genome and transcriptome associated with the origin of S. squalidus and S. cambrensis using wild and resynthesized plant material. In the genus Sorbus hybridization, polyploidy, and apomixis have combined to generate new reproductively isolated taxa in sympatry within the Avon Gorge in Bristol. This evolutionary ‘hot-spot’ is one of the richest areas of Sorbus diversity in the world, containing at least six endemic Sorbus, including the Red Data Book species S. bristoliensis and S. wilmottiana. We are using molecular markers to determine the genetic relationships between the nineteen Sorbus taxa in the Avon Gorge. Our preliminary data indicates that Sorbus speciation is ongoing and that conservation strategies for Sorbus in the Avon Gorge should aim to preserve this evolutionary process rather than individual rare taxa. S 011 Simon Hiscock Matthew Hegarty Ashley Robertson Gary Barker Adrian Brennan Tim Rich Keith Edwards Richard Abbott Simon Hiscock School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK Simon.hiscock@bristol.ac.uk
- 40. 40 S 012 Thomas Städler ETH Zurich Institute of Integrative Biology Plant Ecological Genetics Universitätstrasse 16 CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland thomas.staedler@env.ethz.ch Assessing demographic history in a population-genetic framework: A multilocus case study in wild tomatoes Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation One of the principal aims of molecular population genetics is to infer aspects of evolutionary history from currently observed patterns of DNA sequence polymorphism and divergence. To this end, approaches based on coalescent theory have become the standard inferential tools of population geneticists. One of my goals in this presentation is to provide an intuitive understanding of certain properties of gene genealogies, as reflected in levels and patterns of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). In particular, I will focus on two demographic factors that are likely to be of general relevance for (but by no means limited to) plants, namely population-size changes and population subdivision. A robust understanding of these (past and/or present) demographic features has largely remained elusive in empirical studies, with the partial exception of certain economically important crop species where genome-wide impacts of domestication bottlenecks have been characterized using population- genetic approaches. Background information about demographic history, population subdivision, and effective population size is important in trying to interpret patterns of sequence diversity at loci screened for putative adaptive functions (‘candidate’ loci). Accruing evidence for the adaptive nature of a subset of molecular variation, or of natural selection from current patterns of sequence diversity at particular loci or genomic regions, can in principle be achieved by comparisons with SNP data from neutrally evolving ‘reference’ loci. Our study system comprises several species of wild tomatoes (Solanum section Lycopersicon), which are native to western South America and close relatives of the cultivated tomato. We have generated DNA sequence data from multiple nuclear loci and multiple population samples per species. In particular, data from S. peruvianum and S. chilense (four population samples each) will be used to illustrate population-genetic inferences with respect to species-wide nucleotide diversity and the extent of population subdivision. Moreover, these empirical data were instrumental in understanding the importance of sampling schemes for observable properties of the underlying sample genealogies, in particular the frequency spectrum of polymorphic sites (which is widely used to assess deviations from neutral expectations and/or population-size changes). While most of the tomato population samples would seem to be compatible with demographic equilibrium when analyzed separately, locus-specific sets of pooled (combined) sequences exhibit mutation-frequency spectra skewed towards low-frequency mutations. Coalescent simulations implementing both population subdivision and population-size changes suggest that such patterns are expected under demographic (or range) expansions. Importantly, every sampling scheme that includes more than one allele (sequence) per local population is biased against detecting the full extent of species-wide demographic changes. Because these effects of sampling scheme disappear only under very high rates of gene flow (connectivity) between populations, virtually every species should be regarded as deviating from the population- genetic ‘ideal’ of being panmictic.
- 41. 41 A dispersed-specific model of plant domestication Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Over the last decade, a consensus has been reached on the existence of a core area of plant domestication in the Fertile Crescent, located in south-eastern Turkey, where the closest wild relatives of einkorn, emmer, barley, rye, chickpea, and lentil still grow today. Similar wild populations were necessarily the starting material at the origin of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. Detailed archaeological reports describe how the pre- domestication cultivation of wild cereals lasted even for centuries in the region, and how it was followed by domesticate phenotypes. The genetic and cultural mechanisms underlying the origin of those phenotypes are the issue. If geographically distinct domestication events each entailed random sampling from local genotypes, domesticate lines should trace to different localities across the range of the wild progenitor. This is not observed for einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L) that we used as a model species: Einkorn was among the first crops domesticated by humans in the Fertile Crescent 11,000 years ago. During the last 5,000 years it was replaced by tetraploid and hexaploid wheats and largely forgotten by modern breeders. Einkorn germplasm is thus devoid of breeding bottlenecks and has therefore preserved in unfiltered form the full spectrum of genetic variation that was present during its domestication. We investigated haplotype variation at 18 loci across 321 wild and 92 domesticate T. monococcum lines (> 12 Mb sequenced). Our broad sample of wild lines reveals that wild einkorn underwent a process of natural genetic differentiation, most likely an incipient speciation, prior to domestication. That natural differentiation brought forth three distinct wild einkorn races. Only one of those natural races, β, was exploited by humans for domestication. We present also evidence that einkorn underwent no reduction of genetic diversity during domestication and propose a new model of plant domestication that we designate as dispersed-specific model. In essence, our model supports the adoption of a wild population specific for the core area: this wild population colonized cultivated fields and gradually became domesticated while conserving the original genetic variation. This hypothesis accounts for our molecular data and accommodates the results of archaeological excavations. S 013 Benjamin Kilian*‡† Hakan Özkan** Alexander Walther¶ Jochen Kohl¶¶ Tal Dagan* Andreas Graner*** Francesco Salamini††‡ William Martin* * Institute of Botany III, Heinrich- Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. ** Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Cukurova, 01330 Adana, Turkey. ¶ Regional Climate Group, Earth Sciences Centre, Göteborg University, Box 460, S-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden. ¶¶ Institute of Bioinformatics, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. *** Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Genebank/ Genome Diversity, Corrensstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany. †† Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, Via Einstein – Localita Cascina Codazza, 26900 Lodi, Italy. ‡ Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Carl- von-Linné Weg 10, 50829 Köln, Germany. † Present address: Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Genebank/ Genome Diversity, Corrensstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany. Benjamin Kilian Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Genebank/ Genome Diversity, Corrensstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany. kilian@ipk-gatersleben.de
- 42. 42 S 014 Franco Miglietta Gail Taylor* * University of Southampton, School of Biological Sciences, SO16 7PX UK g.taylor@soton.ac.uk Franco Miglietta Institute of Biometeorology, CNR, Via Caproni, 8 – 50145 Firenze, Italy f.miglietta@ibimet.cnr.it From ecosystems to genes: understanding the diversity of plant response to elevated CO2 Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Although global biomass resources are vast and underutilized, over the coming decades, in the face of a growing population and a changing climate, there is likely to be increased pressure on plant resources for food, fuel and other plant products as we move from an oil-based to a bio-based economy. All of this will put pressure on global agricultural productivity. Plant biologists, agronomists, and breeders should therefore consider the future of crop production in a changing climate; bearing in mind a multiple objective that is to maintain acceptable production levels while minimizing degradation of soil and water resources, preventing environmental impacts such as ground water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing atmospheric CO2 stimulates photosynthesis in C3 crops and CO2 is likely to rise by a further 150 ppm or more in the next 20-25 years. In theory this could increase light-saturated C3 photosynthesis and yield by approximately 40%, but past and current experiments in elevated CO2 in FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment) have revealed a plethora of responses to this treatment, depending on plant species, age and exposure duration and this could eventually limit potential gains in crop biomass and seed yield. The ability of crop plants to benefit from rising CO2 will depend on adequate genetic variation being present to enable adaptation to these new conditions and selection of appropriate traits – maximizing the benefits of CO2 whilst offsetting the negative impacts of water and temperature stress. We propose that new and novel experimental work investigating the CO2- responses of major food crops under representative field conditions, worldwide, is now justified, with a proper methodological approach. There is a need to understand the molecular genetic basis of complex traits that are key to the productivity of crops using a new genomics toolbox that is now available that includes high throughput sequencing, identification of QTL, transcriptomic approaches for important genes and SNPs discovery in those genes. Coupled with a new generation of experimental facilities allowing large scale experimentation under elevated CO2 and under realistic field conditions. This paper will outline the most critical requirements in terms of methodology, by reviewing molecular methods that will be required and describing a range of opportunities that are currently available to establish large scale collaborative facilities to implement a proper scientific policy.
- 43. 43 Impacts of global environmental changes on the distribution of plant production to 2100 Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Quantifying, explaining, and predicting the temporal and spatial dynamics of photosynthesis from regional to global scales is important for understanding the potential impacts of rising atmospheric CO2 and changing climate on future plant production and the global carbon cycle. A new high-resolution modelling approach is described, tested, and applied. Photosynthesis is modelled using a detailed mechanistic algorithm, within a full treatment of the surface energy and hydrological balance. Canopy processes are parameterised at an intermediate level of detail. Photosynthetic capacity is either prescribed from remote sensing and plant-type specific properties, or simulated prognostically. A range of sensitivity tests are used to highlight key processes and key areas for future research. Simulations of the distribution of plant production to the end of this century are performed using a range of global climate model predictions, and the implications for future food production, forestry, and ecosystem services are discussed. S 015 Andrew D. Friend Department of Geography University of Cambridge Downing Place Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK adf10@cam.ac.uk
- 44. 44 S 016 Bruce Osborne∗ Matt Saunders∗ Phil Davies∗† Kevin Black∗‡ Gary Lanigan¶††† Mike Jones¶ Miklos Nagy∗ ∗ UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland † USA ‡ FERS Limited, Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland ¶ Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland ††† TEAGASC, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford, Ireland Bruce Osborne UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, Science and Education Centre West, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Bruce.Osborne@ucd.ie Using comparative assessments of net ecosystem exchange and carbon sequestration to identify mitigation options for managed ecosystems Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades One of the challenges for agriculture in the future is to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, whilst still maintaining crop productivity. To identify potential management options that might lead to a reduction in C emissions that don’t compromise crop productivity we have made a comparison of three different land uses, cropland, grassland and forest-that are located within ~30km of each other, using measurements of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) based on eddy flux technology. Annual carbon sequestration was highest in the forest ecosystem (7.69-9.44tC ha-1 ) and lowest in the cropland (1.83-2.69tC ha-1 ). This was principally a consequence of the shorter duration of vegetation cover in the cropland, as peak values for NEE or gross primary productivity were as high as or higher than the other two ecosystems. Forest thinning increased NEE, possibly due to the exposure of a larger photosynthetic surface to the incoming radiation; the impact of this may also depend on the proportion of diffuse to direct radiation. Increases in the diffuse component would also likely lead to enhanced productivity in the grassland and cropland ecosystems. The introduction of a cover crop enhanced NEE in the cropland whilst reduced tillage had only a small impact on NEE. The effect of the cover crop (mustard) on NEE was found to depend on the number of freezing-nights, with significant and persistent depressions in carbon uptake that lasted for ~7 days. Leaf level measurements indicated that these reductions in carbon uptake were due to impaired photochemistry. These results indicate that simple management practices could significantly enhance carbon uptake and sequestration in different agro-ecosystems. In cropland increased carbon sequestration may be achieved by the introduction of cover crops with enhanced carbon sequestering capacity and improved resilience to freezing temperatures. This requirement may, however, be modified by the projected increases in winter temperatures associated with climate change.
- 45. 45 Promoting indigenous crops as a tool for tackling climate change and food insecurity in semi-arid Africa Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades The semi-arid region of sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by extreme climatic conditions that vary hugely between years. The origins of some of the most resilient crop species such as sorghum, pearl millet and cowpea can be tracked back to this region. Globalization is pushing the existence of these indigenous crops to the verge of extinction in a competition for research and resources with less resilient, but popular introductions like maize and phaseolus bean, which yield well under favourable conditions. Further, the intensive breeding of a few major crops has widened the gap between the cosmopolitan and traditional crops. Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc.) is one such indigenous legume grown primarily for subsistence in many parts of Africa. It has the potential to contribute to food security in extremely drought-prone regions, especially in much of the semi-arid tropics where rainfall is often insufficient to support the cultivation of other leguminous crops. It is the third most important legume in Africa after cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea). In January 2006, an EU-funded project, BAMLINK, was launched to assess and link nutritional, ecophysiological and molecular characteristics of bambara groundnut landraces in order to promote it as a major food crop for semi-arid Africa and India. This has led to the construction of a microsatellite enriched library and evaluation of the DArT marker technology aimed towards developing markers for assessing genetic diversity in over 200 bambara groundnut accessions. The first genetic linkage map based on AFLP markers in a wide cross of bambara groundnut identified many important QTLs responsible for domestication and agronomic traits. Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing technology was exploited for gaining a comprehensive insight into metabolic processes under water deficit, for identifying drought induced genes and for assessing differences between genotypes adapted to contrasting environments in bambara groundnut. Physiological traits like photoperiodic responses, heat stress, ∆13C discrimination and WUE measured in landraces produced noteworthy results. Detailed nutritional and functional evaluation of bambara groundnut consolidated some scattered information available until now. All these information pulled together led to the successful development of the first fully functional model for predicting growth rate and productivity of bambara groundnut landraces under heat, cold and drought stress conditions. We will present research progress and demonstrate that by adopting a holistic approach towards developing one indigenous crop how underutilised, but locally adapted species with obvious evolutionary advantages, have the potential to contribute towards food security in an ever changing global climate, especially in some of the poorest and most hostile regions of the world. S 017 Shravani Basu* Sean Mayes* Florian Stadler+ M.S. Sheshshayee‡ J. L. Christiansen¶ Hans Adu-Dapaah†† P.C. Nautiyal††† Asha Karunaratne* Sayed Azam Ali* *University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, LE12 5RD, UK + Technische Universität München, Chair of Plant Breeding, 85350 Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany ‡ University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India ¶ Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark †† Crops Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana ††† National Research Centre for Groundnut, Gujarat, India Shravani Basu University of Nottingham School of Biosciences Sutton Bonington Campus Loughborough Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK Shravani.Basu@nottingham.ac.uk
- 46. 46 S 018 Robert Watson Defra Area 1A, Noble House 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR, UK Robert.Watson@defra.gsi.gov.uk Is multifunctionality the future of agriculture or simply a trade issue? Session: Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture The recent food price increases are a major cause for concern around the world. In developing countries in particular, they are undermining attempts to reduce hunger and pushing some of the world’s poorest people into abject poverty. The underlying causes are complex and include factors such as increased demand from rapidly growing economies, poor harvests due to an increasingly variable climate, the use of food crops for biofuels, higher energy prices, export bans on agricultural products from a number of significant exporters and speculation on the commodity futures market. But are these price increases a momentary blip - the result of an unfortunate series of events, or are they a harbinger of the future? And if they are more than a blip, what else do we need to know if we are to provide sustainable and nutritious food for the world? Meeting the goal of affordable nutritious food for all in an environmentally sustainable manner is achievable, but it cannot be achieved by current agricultural ‘business as usual’. Instead, if a large part of the world isn’t to go hungry in the 21st Century, we need nothing short of a new ‘agricultural revolution’, with a more rational use of scarce land and water resources, an equitable trade regime, as well as widespread recognition and action on climate change. We also need to recognise that in this changing world we need new tools, which means increased investments in agricultural knowledge, science and technology. Agriculture can no longer be thought of as production alone, but the inescapable interconnectedness of agriculture’s different economic, social and environmental roles and functions must be explicitly recognized. Multi- functionality is the future of agriculture – it is not simply a trade issue. Thankfully, many of the technologies and practices we need to meet the challenge of sustainable agriculture already exist Meeting the goal of affordable nutritious food for all, in an environmentally sustainable manner is achievable. The future is not pre-ordained, but is in our collective hands. While we can build upon our successes, we must also recognise that an extrapolation of business-as-usual will not suffice. Instead, we need to be bold enough to rethink agriculture. Most importantly, if we are to help today’s and tomorrow’s poor and disadvantaged, we need to acknowledge that the time to act is now.
- 47. 47 A food system which ticks all the policy boxes: Can it be done? What would it look like? Is anyone pushing for it? Session: Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture For many years, evidence has been growing that the global food system is under considerable stress. Policy-makers have not until recently recognized this evidence for many reasons, ranging from lack of champions, difficulty in accommodating the enormity of the challenges and ‘lock-in’ to existing policy perspectives and institutions. This paper sets out the new fundamentals which a food policy fit for the 21st century will have to accept and be built upon. The paper proposes that the new food policy will have to address many previously discrete policy ‘boxes’. It asks whether existing institutions are appropriate for the task and proposes that reform of both policy and institutional architecture is required. Scientists will need to be better organized and engaged with civil society if the pace and scale of reform that most of us think necessary has a chance to map let alone deliver the change in policy directions needed. S 019 Tim Lang Centre for Food Policy City University Northampton Square, London EC1V OHB, UK t.lang@city.ac.uk
- 48. 48 S 020 Matin Qaim * Alexander J. Stein ** * Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August- University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany ** Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany Matin Qaim Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August- University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, 37073 Göttingen, Germany mqaim@uni-goettingen.de Economic consequences of Golden Rice Session: Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture Golden Rice (GR), which has been genetically modified to produce beta- carotene in the endosperm of grain, has been proposed to control vitamin A deficiency (VAD), especially among the poor in developing countries. However, the usefulness of GR is questioned by some, and the technology has become one of the centerpieces in the public controversy over genetically modified crops. Because GR is still at the stage of research and development, its actual effectiveness remains unknown. We have developed a methodology for ex ante evaluation, taking into account health and nutrition details, as well as socioeconomic and policy factors. The methodology has been used for empirical analyses in India. Building on a disability-adjusted life year (DALY) framework, we show that VAD is a serious public health problem in India, causing a sizeable disease burden, especially in terms if increased child mortality. Using a nationally representative data set of household food consumption, we have simulated the nutrition and health effects of GR under different assumptions. With public support, if GR were to be consumed widely, the disease burden of VAD could be reduced by 60%, while under more pessimistic assumptions the reduction would be around 10%. When valued in dollar terms, these positive health effects also translate into large economic benefits. Regardless of the underlying assumptions, GR is likely to be more cost-effective than alternative vitamin A interventions, such as food supplementation or fortification. Therefore, it should be considered seriously as a complementary intervention to fight VAD in rice-eating populations.
- 49. 49 Regulation and risk assessment of transgenic plants at European level Session: Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture The following topics will be included in the talk: (i) GMO Regulation in the EU, (ii) European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), (iii) Environmental Risk Assessment, (iv) Future Developments and (v) Biosafety Research. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the keystone of EU risk assessment regarding food and feed safety. In close collaboration with national authorities and in open consultation with its stakeholders, EFSA provides independent scientific advice and clear communication on existing and emerging risks. The EFSA Panel on genetically modified organisms provides independent scientific advice on the safety of (i) GMOs such as plants, animals and micro-organisms, on the basis of Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms, and (ii) genetically modified food and feed, on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 on genetically modified food and feed. The GMO Panel carries out risk assessments in order to produce scientific opinions and advice for risk managers. Its risk assessment work is based on reviewing scientific information and data in order to evaluate the safety of a given GMO. This helps to provide a sound foundation for European policies and legislation and supports risk managers in taking effective and timely decisions. S 021 Joachim Schiemann Julius Kuehn Institute (JKI), Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants Institute for Biosafety of Genetically Modified Plants Messeweg 11/12 D-38104 Braunschweig Germany joachim.schiemann@jki.bund.de
- 50. 50 S 022 Ottoline Leyser Department of Biology Area 11 University of York York YO10 5YW, UK hmol1@york.ac.uk Regulation of shoot branching Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality I: Developmental biology Shoot system architecture is an important agronomic trait, with for example a profound influence on light capture, shoot biomass and fruit number. The degree of shoot branching is under both genetic and environmental control. Integration of these inputs is achieved through the action of a network of interacting plant hormones. As a result of this hormonal network, branching can be modulated throughout the life of the plant depending in the environmental conditions. For example, damage to the primary shoot apex can be detected and mitigated by the activation of axillary shoot apical meristems. Thus shoot branching control is also an important factor in achieving yield stability. We are investigating the network of interacting hormones that regulate branching, and the mechanisms by which they act and interact with one another and the environment. Our progress in understanding the operation of this network will be presented.
- 51. 51 Modelling genes, growth and form in plants Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality I: Developmental biology Much progress has been made recently in our understanding of how genes control patterns of cell types or regional identities with in an organism during its development. However, the link between this process of patterning and growth or morphogenesis is much less well understood. Bridging this gap requires a quantitative understanding of how genes modify growth of multicellular tissues in 3D space at multiple scales. We have been addressing this problem using a combination of genetic, morphological, computational and imaging approaches in collaboration with Andrew Bangham (University of East Anglia) and Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz (Calgary). The results provide new insights into how genes interact with patterns of growth at various scales to modify shape. The talk will illustrate how integrating biological and computational methods may lead to a quantitative mechanistic framework for development. S 023 Enrico Coen The John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney NR4 7UH, UK enrico.coen@bbsrc.ac.uk
- 52. 52 S 024 Björn Sundberg Umeå Plant Science Center SLU, 901 83 Umeå, Sweden Bjorn.Sundberg@genfys.slu.se Wood development – what do plant hormones do? Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality I: Developmental biology Wood is a sustainable raw material that will become increasingly used in both traditional and novel processes to supply energy and materials. Commercial use of wood is based on only a few selected conifer and angiosperm species that provide raw materials with various properties that are suitabile for different uses. Wood and fiber properties are also highly variable within a stem, reflecting the plasticity of wood development. The large within and between species variation in wood properties highlights the immense potential for targeted breeding towards improved feedstock and performance in service. This can best be achieved by a basic understanding of wood development and the use of molecular tools in breeding programs. Plant hormones have long been known to be potent modifiers of growth and development when applied to wood forming tissues, and are generally thought of as mediating internal and environmentally induced growth patterns and growth responses. Auxin, gibberellin and ethylene have all been observed to affect basic events in wood development, i.e. cell division, cell expansion and secondary wall formation. They are therefore putative key players in signalling pathways of commercial traits such as biomass production and fiber chemistry. However, despite the increasing knowledge of plant hormone signal transduction pathways, and hormone cross talk, emerging mainly from research on Arabidopsis the very basic understanding of the regulating role of endogenous hormones in wood development is still rudimentary. Tree size and the physically broad developmental progression of wood relative to other tissue types offers advantage as an experimental system. It is possibile to sample wood from specific developmental stages during their formation. This technique has, for example, been used to visualize the distribution of endogenous hormones with physicochemical tools. We took advantage of this technique to establish that the auxin gradient across wood forming tissues peaks in concentration in the cambial meristem, suggesting its pivatol role in cambial growth. GAs also stimulate cambial cell division when applied to wood forming tissues. Endogenous GAs, however, show a strict compartmentalization to expanding cells with an absence in the cambial meristem. This indicates that GAs are not involved in cambial growth, but rather have a function in wood fiber expansion. Moreover, physiological and molecular experiments demonstrate cross talk between IAA and GA in regulating each others homeostasis and also in inducing target genes. Ethylene is a gas and therefore not likely to be restricted to specific tissue compartments. It is also generally thought of a mediator of environmental stress signals and not required for cell division and cell expansion. By imposing ethylene insensitivity, we could investigate its endogenous affects. We created ethylene insensitive trees by ectopic expression of the dominant negative ethylene receptor Atetr1-1. This approach allowed us to demonstrate a role for endogenous ethylene in mediating increased cell divisions in the cambial meristem as a response to gravity when the tree forms tension wood.
- 53. 53 Cytokinins control root meristem activities and root growth by antagonizing auxin action Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality I: Developmental biology Plant postembryonic development and growth arise from localized regions called meristems. Within the meristems, a subset of stem cells self renew and produce daughter cells that differentiate, giving rise to all plant organs and structures. Cell differentiation is initiated at the meristem transition zone (TZ), the boundaries between dividing and expanding cells of the different cells files. We recently demonstrated that cytokinins control cell differentiation at the root TZ while auxin induces cell division in meristem: thus, the antagonistic and coordinate action of these two hormones is responsible of the establishment of a balance between cell division and cell differentiation necessary to maintain meristem activities and root growth. Here we show that cytokinins position the TZ and regulate the cell differentiation by regulating auxin perception and homestasis. S 025 Raffaele Dello Ioio1 Francisco Scaglia Linhares1 Takashi Aoyama2 Paolo Costantino1 Sabrina Sabatini1 1 Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Model Systems, Università La Sapienza, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy 2 Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611- 0011 Japan Raffaele Dello Ioio Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Model Systems, Università La Sapienza, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy raffaele.delloioio@gmail.com
- 54. 54 S 026 Mark Stitt Yves Gibon Henrik Tschoep Waltraud Schulze Björn Usadel Bikram Pant Rajendra Bari Grit Ruben Rosa Morcuede Wolf-Ruediger Scheible Mark Stitt Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, 14474 Potsdam-Golm, Germany mstitt@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Genomics analysis of responses to nutrients Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture I: Reducing fertilisers Nutrients act as an essential resource for plant growth, and also modulate metabolism and development. To decrease fertiliser use, we need to create plants that can acquire nutrients more efficiently form the soil, and that can use these nutrients more effectively to promote growth and yield. This will require an understanding of the signalling pathways that plants use to adjust their metabolism, growth, allocation and development to changes in the nutrient supply. While some of these responses like changes in cellular growth may be generic, other aspects like the adjustment of transport activity and metabolism can be expected to very from nutrient to nutrient. This talk will focus on nitrogen, phosphate and sulphate, which are the three nutrients that enter metabolism. I will first present results that document the response of global transcript profiles to long tern carbon, nitrogen, phosphate and sulphate starvation, and the rapid responses after resupply of the limiting resource. In order to approach pre-transcriptional responses to nutrients, we are using quantitative (phospho)proteomics to identify proteins that are rapidly phosphorylated or dephosphorylated after resupply of nutrients to starved material. These results will be used to characterise network responses and to highlight commonalties and differences between the responses to these different nutrients. They also allow the identification of candidate genes that could be involved in regulator responses to nitrate. I will then discuss the insights gained by functional analysis of selected signalling pathways that mediate plant adaptation to changes in the nutritional status. Examples will include (i) the elucidation of a novel systemic signalling pathway involving miR399 and PHO2 that regulates phosphate allocation between the shoot and the root, (ii) the identification f a small family of transcriptional regulators that allow nitrate to regulate sectors of secondary metabolism and (iii) the analysis of a signalling pathway that allows early flowering in low nitrate and phosphate. In a complementary approach, we are using Arabidopsis natural diversity to characterise responses and identify QTLs and eventually genes that promote biomass accumulation in limiting nutrient conditions. To do this we have established a growth system in which decreased nutrient supply leads to a steady and sustained inhibition of growth, and have used this to compare growth rates and metabolites across a set of 94 Arabidopsis accessions. This approach is revealing which metabolic characteristics correlate with growth in low nitrogen conditions, and will allow the application of association mapping to identify genes that contribute to nitrogen use efficiency.
- 55. 55 Phosphate starvation signalling in plants Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture I: Reducing fertilisers Phosphorous is an essential nutrient for all organisms. Plants absorb P from preferentially as phosphate, (pi) a quite immobile ion in soils. As a consequence, Pi availability is a major constraint to plant productivity in many soils. On the other hand, plants, as well as other organisms directly taking Pi from the media, have evolved adaptive responses that allow their growth under Pi limiting regimens. In this communication, we review our work on the regulatory system of the Pi starvation rescue system in plants. In particular we will report on the role of PHOSPHATE STARVATION RESPONSE REGULATOR1, as a master transcription factor that largely controls transcriptional activation and repression responses to phosphate starvation in Arabidopsis. Thus, transcriptome analysis showed that impairing PHR1(-like) function reduces not only most of the transcriptional activation responses but also repression responses to Pi starvation. Induced genes showed enrichment in P1BS (PHR1-binding sites) in their promoters while repressed genes did not, indicating direct and indirect action of PHR1- (like) TFs. Induced genes containing P1BS are shown to be direct targets of PHR1, and are on average more highly responsive to Pi starvation. Moreover, we demonstrate that a minimal promoter containing multimerised PHR1-(like) binding sequences (P1BS) recapitulates Pi starvation specific responsiveness. Likewise, mutation of P1BS in the promoters of Pi starvation responsive genes impairs responsiveness to this but not to other stresses. Additionally, we will report on the identification of a novel riboregulatory mechanism of miRNA activity operating in the control of Pi starvation. This mechanism is based on the existente of highly Pi starvation responsive non-coding RNAs, the IPS1 family, which sequester miR399, a highly specifically Pi responsive miRNA. miR399 sequestration depends on the capacity of IPS1(-like) RNAs to be recognised by miR399 but remain resistant to miR399 guided degradation, thus defining an inhibitory mechanism based on target mimicry mechanism. Altogether, these results highlight the important regulatory novelties in Pi starvation signalling, whose potential biotechnological applications will be discussed. S 027 Regla Bustos José Manuel Franco-Zorrilla Gabriel Castrillo Isabel Mateos Mabel Puga Ximena Cardona Vicente Rubio Antonio Leyva Javier Paz-Ares Javier Paz-Ares Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049-Madrid Spain jpazares@cnb.uam.es
- 56. 56 S 028 Bernhard Bauer Lixing Yuan Joni E. Lima Nicolaus von Wirén Nicolaus von Wirén Molekulare Pflanzenernährung Institut für Pflanzenernährung Universität Hohenheim D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany vonwiren@uni-hohenheim.de Nitrogen uptake and signalling networks Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture I: Reducing fertilisers Agricultural plant production strongly depends on the application of mineral nitrogen fertilizers, which are mostly supplied in the form of urea, ammonium or nitrate. Even though transport systems for these nitrogen forms have been extensively characterized at the molecular level in model and crop plants, an upregulation of their transport activities has remained unsuccessful to improve nitrogen uptake efficiency. Nitrate has been shown to act as a signal for metabolism and plant development in physiological studies. However, so far no use is made of the signalling effect of different N forms in cereal plant production. To investigate the effect of different N forms on shoot development, we performed nutrient solution experiments with spring barley and observed that tillering decreased with an increasing amount of nitrogen being supplied in the form of urea. The influence of different N forms on tillering was neither associated with nutrient disorders nor ammonium or urea toxicity. Instead, we observed that cytokinin translocation rates in the xylem increased under nitrate nutrition, while they were low under ammonium or urea supply. To reproduce this N form-dependent effect in field trials, winter wheat plants were fertilised with stabilised N forms in the starter dressing. In fact, supply of nitrate stimulated tillering, while ammonium und especially urea led to decreased tiller numbers per plant. This change in plant architecture also had an effect on grain yield. Our study indicates that the use of different N forms for N fertilization to cereal crops can serve as a means to manipulate plant architecture and help in guiding individual yield components along seasonal variations.
- 57. 57 A new approach for imaging nutrient distributions in plant tissue using time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture I: Reducing fertilisers A new approach to trace the transport routes of water and nutrients in plants at the level of cells and tissues, and to measure their elemental distributions, was developed. With this technical approach we aimed at gaining insight into the dynamics and structure–function relations of transport processes in order to better understand the general principles underlying high water and nutrient use efficiency. Stem samples from Phaseolus vulgaris were used as a test system. Shock-freezing and cryo-preparation were combined with cryo-time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (cryo-ToF-SIMS) for element and isotope specific imaging. Cryo scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) was integrated into the cryogenic workflow to assess the quality of structural preservation. We evaluated the capability of these techniques to monitor transport pathways and processes in xylem and associated tissues, using element and stable isotope tracers added to the transpiration stream. Cryo-ToF-SIMS imaging yielded detailed mappings of water, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium. Lateral resolutions ranged from 10 µm in survey mappings at high mass resolution to ca. 1 µm in high-lateral resolution imaging of reduced areas at lower mass resolution. The selected element and stable isotope tracers were imaged with high sensitivity in xylem vessels and surrounding tissues. Cryo-SEM confirmed that tissue structures had been preserved at particularly high quality allowing recognition of sub-cellular details. Overlays of cryo-ToF-SIMS images onto corresponding SEM images allowed detailed correlation of nutrient images with sub-cellular structures. The technique proved to be suitable for elucidation of the fate of taken-up water and nutrients and to open up new possibilities to evaluate plants with regard to their water and nutrient use efficiency. Studies of altered transport properties and their effects on growth and performance of plants will be possible in a very detailed manner, including plant phenotyping after genetic modification of water and/or solute transport. S 029 Ralf Metzner*† Heike U. Schneider* Uwe Breuer† Walter H. Schröder* *Phytosphere Institute (ICG-3), Research Center Jülich. †Central Division of Analytical Chemistry, Research Center Jülich. Heike Schneider Institut für Chemie und Dynamik der Geosphäre, ICG-3: Phytosphäre Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) Leo-Brandt Straße D-52425 Jülich, Germany he.schneider@fz-juelich.de
- 58. 58 S 030 Jonathan Jones Lionel Navarro Rajendra Bari Keehoon Sohn Georgina Fabro David Greenshields Alexandre Seilaniantz Jonathan Jones The Sainsbury Laboratory John Innes Centre Colney Norwich NR4 7UH, UK Jonathan.jones@tsl.ac.uk Monitoring and manipulating information flow at the host/pathogen interface Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture II: Reducing pesticides Plant pathogens use small molecules and also proteins to render their hosts susceptible. Several pathogens either make plant hormones, or perturb host hormone signalling networks by other means. In addition, many bacteria and other pathogens use a specialized secretion system to deliver proteins into host cells that interfere with host defence. We have taken advantage of the bacterial T3SS secretion system to investigate effectors from filamentous pathogens such as oomycetes. We are part of an ERA-PG project involving Jim Beynon, Jane Parker and Guido van den Ackerveken, in which we use this method to investigate the effector complement of the downy mildew pathogen Hyaloperonospora parasitica (Hpa). I will report recent data on Hpa effector functions and on the use of the Solexa/Illumina sequencing instrument to advance Hpa and other oomycete genomics and transcriptomics.
- 59. 59 Filamentous pathogen effectors Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture II: Reducing pesticides Eukaryotic plant pathogens, such as fungi and oomycetes, secrete an arsenal of effector proteins to modulate plant innate immunity and enable parasitic infection. Deciphering the biochemical activities of effectors to understand how pathogens successfully colonize and reproduce on their host plants became a driving paradigm in the field of fungal and oomycete pathology. This presentation will focus on the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, the Irish potato famine organism that causes late blight of potato and tomato and is arguably the most destructive pathogen of solanaceous crops. Tremendous progress has been made recently in understanding the biology of P. infestans effectors. Two classes of effectors target distinct sites in the host plant: apoplastic effectors are secreted into the plant extracellular space, while cytoplasmic effectors are translocated inside the plant cell, where they target different subcellular compartments. Of particular interest are the RXLR and Crinkler effectors that are characterized by conserved motifs following the signal peptide. The RXLR domain is functionally interchangeable with a malaria host targeting domain and appears to function in delivery into host cells. The recent completion of the genome sequence of P. infestans enabled genome-wide cataloguing of the effector secretome. Using computational analyses, we identified several hundred candidate RXLR effector genes. These were frequently organized in clusters of paralogous genes, many of which exhibit hallmarks of positive selection probably as a result of a coevolutionary arms race with host factors. Predictably, effector genes are typically expressed and often up-regulated during infection. We also utilized the discovered RXLR and Crinkler effectors in high-throughput in planta expression assays to screen for alteration of plant defense response and gain an insight into their function. Understanding the perturbations caused by effectors is helping us to unravel mechanisms of pathogenicity as well as further illuminate mechanisms of plant defense and innate immunity. S 031 Sophien Kamoun The Sainsbury Laboratory Colney Lane Norwich, NR4 7UK, UK Sophien.kamoun@tsl.ac.uk
- 60. 60 S 032 Gerben van Ooijen* Petra Houterman* Gabriele Mayr+ Mario Albrecht+ Ben Cornelissen* Martijn Rep* Frank Takken* * University of Amsterdam, SILS, Plant Pathology, 1098SM Amsterdam, the Netherlands + Max Planck Institute for Informatics, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany Frank Takken University of Amsterdam Swammerdam Insititute for LifeSciences, Plant Pathology Kruislaan 318, 1098SM Amsterdam, the Netherlands F.L.W.takken@uva.nl Resistance proteins: scouts of the plant innate immune system Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture II: Reducing pesticides With the growing concern for the environment and a consumers wish to reduce, and eventually eliminate, residue levels in foods there is a growing demand for production systems that do not rely on the use of pesticides. One way to reduce the need for pesticides is to exploit natural disease resistance sources present in the plant germplasm. Breeders have successfully utilized these natural resistances over the last century and introgressed many, so called, resistance (R) genes into their elite lines, thereby making a substantial contribution to the green revolution. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying R gene function, in the last decade research efforts have focussed on the cloning of these genes. By now, >50 R genes have been cloned from both model and crop plants including woody species such as apple and poplar. The identified R genes can be divided into two groups. One contains genes encoding transmembrane proteins with an extracellular receptor-like domain while members of the second group encodes intracellular proteins. The intracellular receptors perceive the presence, or actions, of pathogen-derived proteins that enter the host cell, whereas the extracellular receptors monitor the presence of such proteins in the apoplastic space. The majority of intracellular resistance proteins are multi-domain proteins containing a central nucleotide binding (NB) domain fused to a leucine rich repeat (LRR) domain. This dual NB-LRR core is often linked to variable N and C –terminal domains. In our group we are interested in how NB-LRR proteins trigger plant disease resistance. As model we focus on the interactions of tomato (Solanum esculentum) with the fungus Fusarium oxysporum and the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita .Disease resistance towards F. oxysporum strains producing avirulence factor 2 (Avr2) is mediated by the R protein I-2, whereas resistance to M. incognita requires the R protein Mi-1. In this seminar I will present a structure-function analysis of the NB domain of I-2 and Mi-1. Furthermore, I will report on our analysis of loss-of- function and autoactivation mutations in the NB domain of Mi-1 and the effects these confer on intramolecular interactions in this protein. These data culminate in a testable working model on how R proteins function as molecular switches controlling disease resistance. The second part of the presentation focusses on proteins secreted by Fusarium in the xylem vessels when colonising a susceptible tomato plant. Among the identified proteins three were shown to be R protein recognition determinants: Avr1, 2 and 3 matching I-1, I-2 and I-3. Besides disclosing the presence of the pathogen to a resistant plant, these proteins were found to be important for virulence as they enhance colonization of plants lacking the corresponding I gene. Surprisingly, the virulence function of Avr1 turned out to be suppression of I-2 and I-3 function. This cross-talk provides an insight in the ongoing warfare between host and pathogen and the defence and counter-defence strategies employed.
- 61. 61 A family of bacterial effectors promote disease by interfering with plant MAP-kinases Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture II: Reducing pesticides Proteins which are secreted via the Type III Secretion System (T3SS) by bacteria, named effectors, are a key element in terms of pathogenesis. The awr gene family from the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum is a group of 5 effectors that are translocated to the plant cell in order to manipulate the host. Deciphering the targets of the AWR effectors will let us know more about their mechanism of action. A Yeast Two Hybrid screening was performed using one of the awr as a bait to identify interacting proteins from an Arabidopsis root cDNA library. Amongst all cDNA clones found to interact, one encoding the Mitogen- Associated Protein (MAP) kinase ATMPK6 was of particular interest. In the MAP-kinase signalling pathway, ATMPK6 plays an extremely important role, integrating several stimuli including oxidative stress and defense to pathogen infection. One of the outcomes of such pathway is to produce a Hypersensitive Reaction (HR), which allows the plant to limit the spreading of the pathogen by a rapid programmed cell death. Interference of this process by the AWR bacterial effector could facilitate bacterial spread and render the plant more susceptible to the pathogen. In order to assess the AWR functions in planta, gain-of-function approaches with transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves have been performed. The localization of AWR and ATMPK6 in the plant cell, overexpression phenotypes and the biochemical validation of their interaction will be presented. Finally, a possible mode of action of the AWR proteins in disease will be discussed. S 033 M. Solé1 L. Deslandes2 S. Genin2 C. Boucher2 M. Valls1 1 Departament de Genètica, Universitat de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. 2 Laboratoire Interactions Plantes- Microorganismes (CNRS-INRA) Castanet-Tolosan, France. Montserrat Solé Dept. Genètica, Facultat de Biología, Universitat de Barcelona Av. Diagonal 645 annex 2n pis 08028 Barcelona, Spain m.sole@ub.edu
- 62. 62 S 034 Peter Langridge Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond SA 5064 Australia peter.langridge@acpfg.com.au Genetic and genomic approaches to deal with subsoil constraints to yield Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture III: Reducing water input Abiotic stresses such as extreme temperature, low water availability, high light intensity, high salt, and mineral deficiencies or toxicities can severely reduce crop plant productivity. In many cases, several types of abiotic stress challenge crop plants simultaneously. High temperatures, high irradiance, scarcity of water and nutrient deficiencies are commonly encountered under growing conditions but are frequently not amenable to management through traditional farm practices. Higher plants have evolved multiple, interconnected strategies that enable them to survive unpredictable environmental fluctuations. However, these strategies are not always well developed in the cereal cultivars grown by grain producers and typically they focus on plant survival at the expense of yield. This presentation will focus on wheat and barley where the genetic control of traits determining yield in water limited and low yielding environments are generally expected to be of low heritability, polygenic and many of the key loci will show epistatic rather than additive effects. Current breeding and mapping techniques make it very difficult to detect and select for these types of loci. Know confounding factors, such as maturity, height, resistance or tolerance to soil diseases, and tolerance to related stresses such as boron, acidity, salinity and nutrient deficiencies must be taken into account. In many cases the genetic control of tolerance to these factors is known so that they could be fixed in both breeding and mapping populations. In comparison to model organisms, wheat and barley have the advantages of extensive monitoring and archiving of genotypes and associated phenotypic data and the availability of unique populations adapted to specific environments and end-uses that have resulted from a long history of selective breeding. These advantages are becoming increasing significant as analytic tools improve. However, application of markers and genomics research in wheat and barley still faces a number of serious issues. In particular, many of the key traits influencing yield are poorly understood at the physiological level, hard to reliably phenotype and the genetic control is frequently poorly understood. However, whole genome approaches and systemic analysis of the molecular basis of stress tolerance responses are starting to reveal key pathways and process involved in maintaining yield in difficult environments.
- 63. 63 Small RNAs and epigenetic regulation in abiotic stress resistance Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture III: Reducing water input The research in my lab is focused on the molecular mechanisms of salt, drought and cold stress signaling and resistance. Recently, we began to study the roles of microRNAs and small interfering RNAs in abiotic stress response pathways, the mechanisms of active DNA demethylation and small RNA-directed DNA methylation, and the contribution of these epigenetic mechanisms to stress resistance. Recent results concerning abiotic stress- regulation of small RNAs and DNA methylation in Arabidopsis will be presented. S 035 Jian-Kang Zhu Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA jian-kang.zhu@ucr.edu
- 64. 64 S 036 François Tardieu Christina Ehlert Boris Parent Thierry Simonneau Olivier Turc Claude Welcker François Tardieu INRA SUPAGRO, LEPSE Place Viala F34820 Montpellier France tardieu@supagro.inra.fr An integrated approach of tolerance to water deficit involving precise phenotyping and modelling Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture III: Reducing water input Unlike the tolerance to other abiotic stresses, drought tolerance does not consist in identifying resistance mechanisms but in a changed optimisation strategy. Because photosynthesis and transpiration have essentially the same determinisms, namely leaf area and stomatal control, drought tolerance is an optimisation of "risk limitation vs potential production", and "carbon vs water". For an agricultural purpose, we look for less conservative strategies in several processes such as leaf growth or kernel abortion, which are adaptive processes which limit the risk of total seed loss under water deficit. The mechanisms driving the reduction in expansive growth with water deficit are multiple (e.g. changes in cell division rate, in cell wall mechanical properties, in turgor, and/or in their signalling pathways). Bottom-up approach from genes to phenotype cannot be envisaged for predicting phenotypes in these conditions. We have developed an approach in which the phenotype was first dissected in fluctuating conditions by using a model ; parameters of the models were then subjected to a genetic analysis. Time courses of transpiration and of leaf elongation rate were analysed in the platform Phenodyn which deals with 400 plants simultaneously over a large range of environmental conditions in the greenhouse and growth chamber. Leaf growth rate and transpiration were followed together with soil water status and micrometeorological conditions. Sensitivities to soil water deficit and to evaporative demand were determined for all genotypes of mapping populations, by the use of response curves whose parameters are valid in several experiments and experimental conditions. They can therefore be considered as stable characteristics of each genotype. We then identified QTLs of these sensitivities which were partly common to three mapping populations. These QTLs were confirmed in an analysis of near isogenic lines, and were partly common with QTLs of silk development under water deficit. The mechanisms driven by genetic responses, in term of cell wall properties, turgor maintenance, root hydraulic conductivity and ABA signalling, have been analysed and will be discussed. The combined genetic - ecophysiological model predicts the time courses of leaf growth under any climatic scenario in genotypes known by their alleles only. It has also been inserted in a whole-plant model which simulates total leaf area and biomass accumulation as a function of environmental conditions and of alleles of the considered genotypes. This opens the way to the use of "virtual genotypes" in breeding programmes, for the evaluation of the appropriate alleles for each climatic scenario.
- 65. 65 Controlled cDNA overexpression system to isolate novel stress genes in Arabidopsis Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture III: Reducing water input Adaptation to extreme environmental conditions in higher plants requires coordinate changes in metabolism, cell growth, division and differentiation, which depend on a large set of genes controlling complex regulatory mechanisms. Responses to abiotic stresses are controlled by a complex web of ABA dependent and independent signalling pathways. Genetic approaches are best suited for the identification of regulatory genes and the majority of genes controlling responses to high salinity, drought and cold were discovered using forward genetic screens of mutagenized Arabidopsis populations. To perform genetic screens for identification of novel Arabidopsis loci involved in the control of abiotic stress responses, a cDNA expression library was created in a Gateway version of estradiol-inducible XVE binary vector (Controlled cDNA Overexpression System, COS). The COS system was tested in three genetic screens by selecting for ABA insensitivity, salt tolerance and activation of a stress-responsive alcohol dehydrogenase- luciferase (ADH1-LUC) reporter gene. More than thirty cDNAs conferring dominant, estradiol-dependent stress tolerance phenotype, were identified by PCR amplification and sequence analysis. Several cDNAs were recloned into the XVE vector and transformed recurrently into Arabidopsis, to confirm that the observed conditional phenotypes were due to their estradiol- dependent expression. Characterization of a cDNA conferring insensitivity to ABA in germination assays has identified the coding region of heat-shock protein HSP17.6A suggesting its implication in ABA signal transduction. Screening for enhanced salt tolerance in germination and seedling growth assays revealed that estradiol-controlled overexpression of a 2-alkenal reductase (2AER) cDNA confers considerable level of salt insensitivity. Screening for transcriptional activation of stress- and ABA-inducible ADH1- LUC reporter gene has identified the ERF/AP2-type transcription factor RAP2.12, which sustained high level ADH1-LUC bioluminescence, enhanced ADH1 transcription rate and increased ADH enzyme activity in the presence of estradiol. These data illustrate that application of the COS cDNA expression library provides an efficient strategy for genetic identification and characterization of novel regulators of abiotic stress responses. This research was supported by OTKA K-68226, F-68598, Marie-Curie Action no. 020232. EU FP5 QLRT-2001-00841. S 037 László Szabados Csaba Papdi Edit Ábrahám Cristina Popescu Mary Prathiba Joseph Imma Perez Salamó Csaba Koncz László Szabados Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Center, Temesvári krt. 62, 6726-Szeged, Hungary szabados@brc.hu
- 66. 66 S 038 Lothar Willmitzer Alisdair Fernie Jan Lisec Matthew Hannah Mark Stitt Thomas Altmann Matthias Steinfath Joachim Selbig Lothar Willmitzer MPI für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie and University of Potsdam 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany willmitzer@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Metabolic composition and biomass Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality II: Improving yield Yield is probably the most complex trait displayed by a plant. It is the final and integrative descriptor of plant growth during its entire life cycle. Yield is thus influenced by and dependent on numerous genetics and environmental parameters. We are interested in the identification and analysis of processes influencing biomass. Using A. thaliana as the model organisms we on the one hand follow a genetic approach aiming at the parallel identification of biomass and metabolic QTL´s using segregating Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes and derived RIL´s and NILs. On the other hand we are interested in investigating the potential use of metabolite profiles as a predictor for biomass. Both approaches show a very strong association between mQTL´s respectively metabolic composition and biomass. As stated above biomass is influenced by numerous genetics and environmental parameters. Temperature and light are two obvious environmental parameters which constantly change over even short times. We thus set out for a systems approach following metabolic and gene expression changes as a result of changing light and/or temperature. Results of this ongoing analysis will be presented.
- 67. 67 The identification of molecular markers for yield components Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality II: Improving yield Understanding the control of yield in crops is perhaps the most complex problem in plant biology and, as it underpins the world’s staple food supply, the most important. Plant breeders have made spectacular advances in improving yield, using largely empirical approaches. In contrast, our mushrooming knowledge of the molecular bases of biological processes in plants has had relatively little identifiable impact. We have taken two approaches to better connect our knowledge of plant biology with pathways that can lead to the outcome of improved crop yield. The first is to dissect the genetics of components of yield, in order to identify the most relevant for targeted genetic improvement. The second is to identify markers that are relevant for these components. These markers will then be available for both the identification of beneficial alleles in collections of natural or induced genetic variation, and to underpin marker- assisted breeding strategies. Examples will be presented, from ongoing work in Arabidopsis, oilseed rape and maize, illustrating some of the key messages emerging from these activities. S 039 Ian Bancroft John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK ian.bancroft@bbsrc.ac.uk
- 68. 68 S 040 Wim Van Camp Koen Bruynseels Chris De Wilde Joris De Wolf Valerie Frankard Yves Hatzfeld Katrien Lievens Pierre Lejeune Christophe Reuzeau Anabel Sanz Steven Vandenabeele Ernst Vrancken Rindert Peerbolte Piotr Puzio Wim Van Camp CropDesign N.V. Technologiepark 3 B-9052 Gent, Belgium Wim.vancamp@cropdesign.com Yield increase by transgenic approaches Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality II: Improving yield Considering that yield improvement has been the focus of breeding programs for several decades, it is remarkable how little is known about the plant genes that determine yield. With the advent of genomics, classical genetic approaches have made substantial progress in identifying plant genes that control processes such as disease resistance or flowering. Yet, for a complex multifactorial trait like yield, which additionally shows a strong genotype to environment interaction, genetics has generally not been able to reach the resolution power that is required to dissect QTLs to the level of single genes. Reverse genetics approaches have been more successful, particularly for the identification of genes that control processes underlying yield - such as photosynthesis, carbon partitioning, flower development and seed production. However, only a limited number of these genes have been demonstrated to effectively improve overall crop yield. One of the major factors that hampers progress in this area is the need for new tools and technologies to measure yield reliably in the setting of a plant molecular biologist, which is typically a small plant population in a greenhouse environment. CropDesign has developed a high-throughput reverse genetics platform, named TraitMill, to evaluate the effects of single genes on yield. This platform uses rice as a model crop and has a capacity for testing 500-1000 different gene constructs per year in a controlled environment. The yield evaluation set-up makes use of robots for automated plant transport, digital imaging tools for plant evaluation and proprietary image analysis software for data production and statistical analysis of the results. Phenotypic parameters include the most relevant yield components for cereals, such as total seed yield, seed number, seed filling and seed size, number of panicles, flowering time, growth rate, vegetative and root biomass. Greenhouse conditions are adaptable, so that the same parameters can be measured for plants grown under water- or nutrient-deficiency stress. Over the last years, CropDesign has in this way identified a range of genes that improve one or several of these yield components. Single genes contributing more than 20% yield increase in greenhouse conditions have been found. Several of these effects have been validated in small-scale field trials, with similar increases in yield, showing that many of the identified genes operate quite independently of the environment. Our results demonstrate the potential of single gene approaches to modify complex quantitative traits such as yield. Moreover, these results provide breeders with new tools and alleles for yield improvement programs that can be integrated in crop plants either by genetic engineering or by conventional breeding.
- 69. 69 Increasing artemisinin yield in Artemisia annua L. Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality II: Improving yield Artemisia annua L. (Asteraceae) is currently the only source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin. The low yield of artemisinin (<1% of plant dry weight) and increasing demand, for use in Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs), has resulted in an expensive drug with an unstable supply chain. Improving artemisinin yield from A. annua would reduce costs and increase availability, making it more accessible to the 300- 500 million individuals who contract malaria, worldwide, every year. While A. annua is currently the only source of artemisinin, little work has been done to improve yield. Artemisinin yield could be improved in 3 ways: 1. by increasing flux into the artemisinin biosynthetic pathway, for example, by reducing carbon flow to competing compounds, 2. by increasing the number of glandular trichomes on the leaves, which are the site of artemisinin synthesis, 3. by increasing the amount of leaf biomass per plant, the tissue from which artemisinin is extracted. The CNAP Artemisia Research Project is undertaking a combination of strategies aimed at creating high yield varieties of A. annua which will be suitable for commercial cultivation. Strategies include developing genetically diverse populations of A. annua from which high yielding individuals are being identified (using both reverse and forward genetic approaches), fast-track breeding technologies and a gene discovery programme, which is identifying genes with the potential to impact artemisinin yield. This work is being supported by the collection of biochemical and morphological data which will inform upon the most important factors influencing artemisinin biosynthesis and yield in A. annua. S 041 Teresa Penfield* Dianna Bowles* Ian Graham* *CNAP Artemisia Research Project. York. UK Teresa Penfield CNAP Artemisia Research Project Dept of Biology – Area 7. University of York, PO Box 373. York. YO10 5YW, U.K. tp505@york.ac.uk
- 70. 70 S 042 Kaisa Poutanen VTT, POB 1000 02044 VTT, Finland Kaisa.Poutanen@vtt.fi How to optimally exploit grains for food? Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality III: Food and feed Intake of both cereal dietary fibre and whole grain is increasingly shown to protect against rapidly expanding chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms are as yet not known, but the protection is suggested to be due to the concerted action of dietary fibre and various bioactive compounds such as lignans, phenolic acids, alkylresorcinols, phytosterols, folates, tocopherols and tocotrienols, other vitamins and minerals. Being concentrated in the outer layers of the grain, these compounds are often removed in current milling processes, optimised to deliver products made of refined grains. Foods should be made available containing more grain fibre and outer layers of the grains, addressing also the consumer expectations of palatability and convenience. This demands for new ingredients high in grain phytochemicals and showing good technological properties. The natural diversity in grains offers a good basis for tailored fractionation and bioprocessing.The grain chain from plant breeding and crop selection should take into account the nutritional quality criteria set by the end-use. This is the approach in the EU integrated project HEALTHGRAIN running in 2005- 2010. This study is financially supported by the European Commission in the Communities 6th Framework Programme, Project HEALTHGRAIN (FOOD-CT-2005-514008).
- 71. 71 Food product innovation taking advantage of plant selection Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality III: Food and feed To compete in the global market food companies need to continuously propose new products on the shelves. Modern Distribution and Hard Discount have recently reinforced this need since they are competing with branded companies just on cost and using often branded end product-like to attract people. Therefore, innovation is one of the few tools in the hand of the branded companies to compete and hopefully to expand on the market. The main areas where branded companies are active to deliver innovative end products are: technology/processing, service/packaging, function/usages and raw materials, which represent really a powerful tool of differentiation. Barilla’s approach on a strategic raw material is to know in depth the whole production chain and to understand the critical points to study and to develop research projects. Often, the answer is breeding. Conventional and molecular assisted breeding. Adopting breeding on durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum Desf.) and on processing tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.), Barilla has been able to differentiate some of its products in terms of cost, texture, nutrition and appearance. Barilla is the pasta worldwide leader and durum wheat semolina is the only raw material used to obtain the end product. Barilla is vertically integrated too because it has durum wheat mills. Tailor made durum wheat varieties (i.e. “Svevo”) obtained together with breeding companies (i.e. Produttori Sementi Bologna) are cultivated under cultivation contracts and allow to have top desired quality (texture, mouth feel, consistency) at a better price (cost) than if sourced from elsewhere. “Svevo” was obtained by conventional breeding, but what made the difference were the input and the analytical support given by Barilla to the breeding company during the selection cycle. Barilla followed this approach also in the case of “Aureo” (a new durum variety awaiting registration), but the requests could not be met using only conventional breeding, therefore, a study of a mapping population was undertaken obtaining two results: “Aureo” (a Recombinant Inbred Line meeting Barilla’s requirements) and a set of QTLs controlling quality traits and of linked molecular markers, which are being exploited in new cycles of Marker Assisted Selection. In the sauces business, Barilla uses also a tomato variety (i.e. “Scarpariello”) exclusively cultivated in a dedicated production chain and selected for outstanding and taste which withstands during the thermal applications. It allows obtaining innovative and distinctive sauces that have been “branded” with the variety name too. In the future, through breeding, it could be possible to differentiate even more among sauces in terms of taste and why not, colour and nutritional traits, too. The raw material relevance on final product innovation is so distinctive that “Svevo” and “Scarpariello” stories become the core of the TV advertising campaigns of both pasta and sauces categories. Modern plant breeding may help food branded companies in the daily fight in the market because the new tools offered by genomics allow a very efficient selection of the traits required for some end product innovations. S 043 Ranieri Roberto Marco Silvestri Roberto Ranieri Barilla G. e R. Fratelli Via Mantova, 166 43100 Parma, Italy r.ranieri@barilla.it
- 72. 72 S 044 Søren K. Rasmussen Department of Agricultural Sciences, 40 Thorvaldsensvej DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark skr@life.ku.dk Presentation of the white paper of the EPSO workshop on “The European Feed Value Chain” held in Copenhagen from 26 to 27 June 2007 Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality III: Food and feed The global demand for meat, dairy products and eggs is increasing rapidly as relative incomes are rising. The demand is shifting from plant based diets towards livestock derived products. At the same time, in Europe, the environmental concerns related to the large and intense animal production and its environmental impact require new and improved production technologies. Finally, the EU is facing increasing competition on the world markets and rationalizations and cost reductions are essential to defend world market positions. The environmental impact of the large and intense animal husbandry is of increasing importance on national and European policies and regulations. In consequence, strict limitations are put on the use, and loss, of nitrate and phosphorous both directly from the livestock and indirectly from the feed crop production. The effects of global warming on feed and livestock production require increased attention. Agriculture is a major emitter of greenhouse gasses in the form of CO2 as well as methane from ruminants. Besides, climate change will in itself with predictions of raised temperatures, changed patterns in rain fall with dry summers and wet winters, and with more extreme weather conditions have a major effect on feed production. Major challenges to plant breeding will be securing crop yield and stability in situations with unfavorable or even harmful growth conditions. Likewise, extreme rainfall situations increase the likelihood of loss of nutrients from arable land to the aqueous environment. Taken together, the whole value chain from plant breeding, feed crop production, feed formulation and to meat, dairy products and eggs is in a difficult position facing increasing international competition from low cost countries, national and EU restrictions and regulations on environmental impact and animal welfare, and potential changes in the climate. Significant genetic improvement of the plants is required in order to maintaining high product quality. These traits includes high quality macro and micro nutrients content, factors affecting digestibility, palatability, gut health in relation to feed, mycotoxin and xenobiotic contamination in the feed chain. Water use, nutrient efficiency, pesticide use, greenhouse gas emissions, landscape, energy efficiency of agriculture has be solved as well. Plant research contribution to solutions thus involves many facet’s. Most important is the cereals followed by and forage crops – grasses and grain legumes for which high and stable yields should be maintained. Sustaining crop diversity in European agricultural systems seems an attractive option.
- 73. 73 An Arabidopsis genetical genomics approach to improve phytonutrient quality in Brassica vegetable crops Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality III: Food and feed Brassica vegetables contain a wide variety of secondary metabolites that contribute in both positive and negative ways to their nutritional qualities. The influence of these compounds on nutritional quality has stimulated interest in breeding new Brassica vegetable varieties with improved nutritional profiles. We use Arabidopsis thaliana as a model species to study the phytonutrient biosynthesis pathways, to identify new regulatory genes or unknown biosynthesis genes. Twelve Arabidopsis accessions for which well-genotyped RIL populations are available, were analysed using LC-UV/Vis, LC-QTOF MS and 1 H-NMR analysis to identify phytonutrients. Based on the metabolic differences of the parent accessions, we chose a genetically characterised segregating Arabidopsis recombinant inbred line (RIL) population (Landsberg erecta x Kashmir). This population was grown hydroponically for four weeks under short days until the rosette-stage. Pooled leaf material of six plants was used for metabolic profiling using both targeted and untargeted approaches. This metabolite survey focussed on the identification and quantification of phytonutrients such as glucosinolates, phenolic compounds (phenyl- propanoids and flavonoids), folate and isoprenoids (carotenoids and tocopherols). In addition to the metabolome analysis, the same leaf samples were used for gene expression analysis using a distant-pair micro-array design. Using both the metabolite and transcriptome data as trait data we subsequently performed a QTL analysis. The results of this analysis, focussing on glucosinolate biosynthesis as well as isoprenoid biosynthesis, will be discussed. All metabolome, transcriptome and QTL information will be combined to predict metabolic networks. In this way, new regulators or biosynthesis genes can found. These genes, identified in Arabidopsis, will then be used to identify the corresponding Brassica rapa orthologues and develop molecular markers for breeding purposes. This work is financially supported by the IOP Genomics project IGE05010. S 045 Wessel van Leeuwen1 Ric de Vos2 Hye Kyong Kim3 Rob Verpoorte3 Ronny Joosen2 Kim Boutilier2 Frank Johannes4 Ritsert Jansen4 Mark Aarts1 1 Laboratory of Genetics, Plant Sciences Department, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 2 Plant Research International, Business Unit Bioscience, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 3 Division of Pharmacognosy, section Metabolomics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. 4 Groningen Bioinformatics Centre, University of Groningen, Haren, The Netherlands. Wessel van Leeuwen Laboratory of Genetics Plant Sciences Department Wageningen University 6703 BD Wageningen The Netherlands Wessel.vanLeeuwen@wur.nl
- 74. 74 S 046 Melanie Febrer Jon Wright Michael Bevan Michael Bevan John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UJ, UK michael.bevan@bbsrc.ac.uk Brachypodium distachyon genomics for bioenergy research Session: New Products I: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? The small annual grass Brachypodium distachyon is a close relative of wheat and other members of the Pooideae subfamily. It’s ~300 Mb genome is very small and contains genes that are highly similar to wheat genes and occur in a closely similar chromosomal order. It has a rapid generation time, small stature and undemanding growth requirements that enables 500 plant/m2 to be grown in simple conditions. It is self fertile, sets abundant seeds and exhibits natural variation in many important features such as flowering time, vernalisation responses, polyploidy and seed size. These features have led to major interest in developing genomics and functional genomes resources in Brachypodium to support research in cereal and grass crops for food and fuel production. The DOE Joint Genome Laboratory is conducting whole genome shotgun sequencing and transcriptome sequencing projects that will be completed by June 2008. A check point assembly of the 4x sequence has already been distributed to users through dedicated databases (www.brachypodium.org and www.modelcrop.org). Two physical maps of BACs support the sequence assemblies, and genetic maps are currently being produced. By the end of 2008 a thoroughly annotated and well- assembled genome sequence will be available. The availability of high quality annotated genome sequence has raised considerable interest in Brachypodium both as a comparative genomics resource for “bridging” into the largest more complex genomes of closely– related wheat, barley and forage grasses, but also as an experimental system for exploring the biology of environmental adaptation, growth control and disease resistance in temperate grasses. Biological studies in Brachypodium can also form a useful “bridge” between the extensive biological research conducted in Arabidopsis and strategic research goals in wheat, barley, forage and bioenergy grass crops, especially projects focussed on grass- specific traits. Consequently there has been an increased demand from the research community for resources to conduct biological research in Brachypodium. In my lecture I will describe recent progress in the Brachypodium genome project and illustrate how comparative genomics can aid genomics research in wheat and barley.
- 75. 75 Engineering microbial metabolism for production of advanced biofuels Session: New Products I: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Today, carbon-rich fossil fuels, primarily oil, coal and natural gas, provide 85% of the energy consumed in the United States. As world demand increases, oil reserves may become rapidly depleted. Fossil fuel use increases CO2 emissions and raises the risk of global warming. The high energy content of liquid hydrocarbon fuels makes them the preferred energy source for all modes of transportation. In the US alone, transportation consumes around 13.8 million barrels of oil per day and generates over 0.5 gigatons of carbon per year. This release of greenhouse gases has spurred research into alternative, non-fossil energy sources. Among the options (nuclear, concentrated solar thermal, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, solar and biomass), only biomass has the potential to provide a high-energy- content transportation fuel. Biomass is a renewable resource that can be converted into carbon-neutral transportation fuels. Currently, biofuels such as ethanol are produced largely from grains, but there is a large, untapped resource (estimated at more than a billion tons per year) of plant biomass that could be utilized as a renewable, domestic source of liquid fuels. Well-established processes convert the starch content of the grain into sugars that can be fermented to ethanol. The energy efficiency of starch-based biofuels is however not optimal, while plant cell walls (lignocellulose) represents a huge untapped source of energy. Plant-derived biomass contains cellulose, which is more difficult to convert to sugars, hemicellulose, which contains a diversity of carbohydrates that have to be efficiently degraded by microorganisms to fuels, and lignin, which is recalcitrant to degradation and prevents cost-effective fermentation. The development of cost-effective and energy-efficient processes to transform lignocellulosic biomass into fuels is hampered by significant roadblocks, including the lack of specifically developed energy crops, the difficulty in separating biomass components, low activity of enzymes used to deconstruct biomass, and the inhibitory effect of fuels and processing byproducts on organisms responsible for producing fuels from biomass monomers. We are engineering the metabolism of platform hosts (Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for production of advanced biofuels. Unlike ethanol, these biofuels will have the full fuel value of petroleum-based biofuels, will be transportable using existing infrastructure, and can be used in existing automobiles and airplanes. These biofuels will be produced from natural biosynthetic pathways that exist in plants and a variety of microorganisms. Large-scale production of these fuels will reduce our dependence on petroleum and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, while allowing us to take advantage of our current transportation infrastructure. S 047 Jay D. Keasling Departments of Chemical Engineering & Bioengineering University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Physical Biosciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, CA 94720, USA keasling@berkeley.edu
- 76. 76 S 048 Birgitte K. Ahring Division for Biotechnology and Bioenergy, University of Aalborg Ballerup, Denmark bka@bio.aau.dk Second generation bioethanol production from lignocellulosic material Session: New Products I: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Residues from agriculture and forestry are suitable raw materials for production of biofuels. In contrast to the use of corn and grain this biofuels will be sustainable and possess a high degree of CO2 reduction when used as transport fuel. In the presentation I will describe a special biorefinery concept: “The Maxifuels concept” whereby the biomass raw materials will end as different energy products in the form of biofuels, a solid fuel, hydrogen and methane. By optimizing the outcome of the raw material it is possible to ensure high energy efficiency and a high CO2 reduction of the produced fuels. The concept has been tested for two years in pilot phase and the results show promises for a future production scheme of second generation biofuels for a price lower than gasoline today. Results from pilot testing will be presented. The Maxifuels concept is now being commercialized through the spin-off company BioGasol. BioGasol is currently building a demonstration project on the island of Bornholm and has just initiated the work on a DOE funded demonstration project in the state of Oregon, USA together with the US partner Pacific Ethanol. Ref. BirgitteK. Ahring & Niels Langvad. Sustainable low cost production of lignocellulosic bioethanol- “The carbon slaughterhouse”. 2008. International Sugar Journal. Pp. 184-191.
- 77. 77 Effect of early plant development and genotypic variation in frost tolerance for 3 species of Miscanthus Session: New Products I: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? In view of its high yield potential under low input demands, the perennial rhizomatous C4 grass Miscanthus seems a good candidate for biomass production in Europe as a potential source of agro-energy. However, it can be susceptible to frost, in particular during the establishment of the crop. To evaluate the genotype variability for frost tolerance according to plant development at early stages, three species of miscanthus (M. x giganteus, M. sinensis, and M. sacchariflorus) were studied. They were tested at three development stages (3, 5 and 7 visible leaves) under controlled conditions mimicing those found in Northern France during spring time, with temperatures up to -8°C repeated for two successive days. Plants produced by rhizomes were cold acclimated during 8 days at 12°C before frost exposure, whereas control plants were not. Tolerance was scored with respect to damage to the plants, and was noted from 0 (low) to 3 (high). The first results for M. x giganteus showed a correlation of 0.62 between frost tolerance and leave stages; 77% of “3 leaves-plants” were able to stand the frost exposure, against only 33% for “5 leaves-plants”, and 4% for “7 leaves-plants”. New experiments are on the way to validate these results and to determine the response of the other miscanthus species at the same stages of crop establishment and under the same temperature regimes. S 049 Zub Hélène Brancourt-Hulmel Maryse Zub Hélène Unité Mixte de Recherche Stress Abiotique des Végétaux cultivés n°1281 2, Chaussée Brunehaut Estrées Mons BP 50 136 80 203 PERONNE Cedex, France helene.zub@mons.inra.fr
- 78. 78 S 050 Yuri Gleba Icon Genetics GmbH, Weinbergweg 22 D-06120 Halle/Saale Germany gleba@icongenetics.de New materials from new plants Session: New Products II: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Plant biotechnology as a commercial process is a reality. During 1996-2007, the global GM crop area has grown for 12 consecutive years and has reached 81 million hectares. Such numbers undoubtedly reflect benefits enjoyed by the various participants in the business, including 10 or so million farmers. However, all GM crops grown at present were modified to facilitate crop production, thus, they do not benefit the consumers. Promises to create engineered plant hosts-producers of novel materials, medicines and improved foods made by plant biotechnologists did not materialize so far. It is safe to predict that all this and more will be ‘delivered’ during the 21st Century, but the timing will depend on our ability to develop both the sound science leading to new products as well as the new engineering processes that satisfy the requirements of an exploiter (technical efficiency, compliance with business requirements, compatibility with existing or predicted infrastructure), a government regulator (regulatory compliance, safety, sustainability), and an end user. The products most likely to reach the market in near future are high-value proteins such as biopharmaceuticals. Several injectable biopharmaceuticals including plant-made ‘biosimilar’ glucocerebrosidase, interferon alpha, insulin have reached clinical trials, many more are nearing that stage. Several materials such as industrial enzymes and immunoadsorbents are in advanced testing phases and at least one has reached the market. The purpose of the presentation is to review the rapid progress in this exciting area of plant biotechnology.
- 79. 79 Biomaterials, synthesis of the biopolymer cyanophycin in tobacco and potato Session: New Products II: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products The production of biodegradable polymers that substitute petrochemical compounds in commercial products, in transgenic plants is an important challenge for plant biotechnology. The polymer Polyaspartate is used to substitute polycarboxylates. It can be isolated from the bacterial storage protein cyanophycin, composed of L-Aspartat and L-Arginin. Cyanophycin is produced via non-ribosomal protein biosynthesis by a cyanophycin synthetase. Potato tubers are particularly suitable for the production of biopolymers since they allow a cost effective manufacture as a by product of starch. To produce cyanophycin in plants, three different Cyanophycin Synthetase genes (Berg et al. 2000) were expressed constitutively in tobacco and potato plants. Only one of the three synthetases produced cyanophycin in plants with up to 0.1 % polymer in dry weight (dw). Granula containing cyanophycin were detected by electron microscopy in different transgenic lines in leaves and for potato also in tubers. Unfortunately the transgenic tobacco and potato lines exhibited different stress symptoms like reduced growth, variegated leaves and early flower induction due to the production of the polymer (Neumann et al. 2005). In order to increase polymer synthesis, the functional cyanophycin synthetase gene was fused to different transit peptide sequences for import into chloroplasts. In transgenic tobacco and potato lines cyanophycin content increased up to 3 % in dw. Additionally, these plants did not exhibit any phenotypic damage but a slightly thicker cell wall (Hühns et al 2008). The reduction of polymer synthesis to potato tubers results in very small tubers with a polymer content up to 2 % in dw. Up to now, the highest cyanophycin content was observed by a tuber specific production in plastids without phenotypical changes. S 051 Maja Hühns Katrin Neumann Wolfgang Lockau Uwe kahmann Elfriede K. Pistorius Inge Broer Inge Broer University of Rostock Justus-von-Liebig-weg 8 D-18059 Rostock Germany Inge.Broer@uni-rostock.de
- 80. 80 S 052 Dion Florack* Maurice Henquet‡ Gerard Rouwendal* Sander van der Krol‡ Dirk Bosch*† * Plant Research International, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands ‡ Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. † Department of Chemistry, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Dirk Bosch Plant Research International Wageningen University and Research Centre. Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands dirk.bosch@wur.nl Controlling the quality of biopharmaceuticals in plants Session: New Products II: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Plants are considered promising factories for the production of recombinant therapeutic proteins. PhaseIII clinical trials with plant produced proteins are currently in progress. Their full potential is however limited by the fact that plants and mammals differ with respect to the formation of complex N- glycans on glycoproteins. In a previous study, we showed that expression of a human β(1,4)-galactosyltransferase (GalT) in tobacco resulted in the introduction of terminal galactose residues but that these N-glycans remain unaltered with respect to the presence of β(1,2)-xylose residues and α(1,3)- fucose residue linked to the glycan core. The latter epitopes are normally not found in mammals and are potentially immunogenic. We designed an innovative strategy to prevent the incorporation of these potentially immunogenic epitopes. This strategy is based on the observation that the identity of N-glycans is not only determined by the mere presence of enzymes involved in their biosynthesis, but also by the order in which these enzymes act on the N-glycan substrates. Ordering is largely determined by the sequential positioning of the enzymes along the secretory pathway. This notion offers the possibility to steer the N-linked glycosylation by controlling the localization of the enzymes in the secretory pathway. The so- called CTS anchors of type II membrane bound glycosyltransferases play a central role in their sub-Golgi distribution. As an example of this type of pathway engineering we exchanged the CTS region of human GalT by that of a plant xylosyltransferase (XylT). Expression of the hybrid galactosyltransferase in tobacco resulted not only in galactosylation of N- glycans but simultaneously in a dramatic decrease of xylose and fucose epitopes on plant glycoproteins as well as on N-glycans on a recombinant antibody. A radioallergosorbent inhibition assay with proteins purified from leaves of the transgenic tobacco plants using sera from allergic patients suggested a significant reduction of potential immunogenicity. A further characteristic of N-glycan biosynthesis is that often enzymatic reactions do not go to completion. This may result in complex mixtures of glycoforms of even a single protein. This is undesirable when product homogeneity and consistency is important. By interfering in an early step of N-glycan biosynthesis in the ER, we were able to by-pass several subsequent enzymatic reactions thus preventing the accumulation of high mannose intermediates and resulting in a more homogeneous N-glycan profile. These data show that knowledge on biochemistry as well as cell biology of N- glycan biosynthesis in plants facilitates the control over N-linked glycosylation enabling the production of therapeutic quality antibodies in plants.
- 81. 81 High efficient synthesis in chloroplasts of a protein antibiotic active against human pathogenic bacteria Session: New Products II: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products There is a pressing need to develop new and inexpensive antibiotics to keep pace with emerging bacterial resistances. Here we report extreme overexpression of a proteinaceous antibiotic against pathogenic streptococci from the plant's plastid (chloroplast) genome. The antibiotic, a phage lytic protein, accumulated to enormously high levels (>70% of the plant's total soluble protein), proved to be extremely stable and efficiently killed the target bacteria within minutes. These unrivaled expression levels, together with the chloroplast's insensitivity to enzymes degrading bacterial cell walls and the eliminated need to remove bacterial endotoxins by costly purification procedures establish an effective production platform for next- generation antibiotics. S 053 Melanie Oey* Marc Lohse* Bernd Kreikemeyer+ Ralph Bock* * Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany + University of Rostock, Medical Faculty, Inst. of Med. Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, Dept. of Med. Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene, Schillingallee 70 18057 Rostock, Germany Melanie Oey Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Am Muehlenberg 1 D-11476 Potsdam, Germany oey@mpimp-golm.mpg.de
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- 83. 83 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm List of poster abstracts
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- 85. 85 Session: Plant Science in Europe - Science Policy ProfiCrops – our commitment to crop production in Switzerland P 001 Alain Gaume, Lukas Bertschinger and David Dubois System-thinking essence in decision-making procedures. A conceptual approach P 002 integrating weed population dynamics and possible economical outputs Nicholas E. Korres and George N. Skaracis* Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity: Genome structure and evolution Investigating meiotic recombination in rice - examining OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B P 003 through phenotypic, genotypic, cytological and complementation analysis Chanate Malumpong, Katie Mayes, Vera Thole, Philippe Vain, Sean Mayes Forward & Reverse genetic approaches for elucidating the role of Meiotic Recombination P 004 gene homoeologues in hexaploid wheat Upendra Kumar Devisetty, Katie Mayes, Simon Orford, and Sean Mayes Identification and analysis of SNPs on a large scale using high-throughput sequencing in P 005 maize Martin Ganal, Joerg Plieske, Hartmut Luerssen, Andreas Polley Towards the characterization of a distant cis-acting enhancer element associated with P 006 flowering time in maize S. Castelletti, R. Tuberosa, S. Salvi How to deal with landrace-based crops? Estimating ‘genetic breadth’ for crop P 007 improvement - an example from an indigenous African legume. Odireleng Molosiwa, Sean Mayes and Shravani Basu Insights into a giant genome: physical mapping of chromosomes 3S in wheat and barley P 008 Delphine Fleury, Zahra Shoaei, Mingcheng Luo, Jan Dvorak and Peter Langridge Characterization of WRKY transcription factors in barley (Hordeum vulgare) P 009 Elke Mangelsen, Joachim Kilian, Uener Kolukisaoglu, Klaus Harter, Christer Jansson and Dierk Wanke Application of cytoplasmic and nuclear DNA based marker systems for elucidation of P 010 phylogenetic relationship of Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana Boonruangrod Ratri, Desai Dhairyasheel, Berenyi Maria, Fluch Silvia and Burg Kornel Excess Heterozygosity and Scarce Genetic Differentiation in the Populations of Phoenix P 011 dactylifera L.: Human Impact or Ecological Determinants Sakina Elshibli and Helena Korpelainen Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity: Plant adaptation, domestication, and conservation The Arabidopsis ROF1 (FKBP 62) is essential for acquired thermotolerance by P 012 affecting the level of small heat stress proteins David Meiri and Adina Breiman
- 86. 86 The genomics of germplasm exploitation P 013 Andy C. Allan, William A. Laing, Richard V. Espley, Mirco Montefiori, Charles Dwamena, Rebecca Henry, Kui Lin-Wang, Andrew P. Dare and Roger P. Hellens Twenty two years since Chernobyl disaster: What seed proteome can tell us? P 014 Maksym Danchenko, Ľudovít Škultéty, Valentyna V. Berezhna, Namik M. Rashydov, Anna Preťová, Martin Hajduch Life in the margins – a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the mechanisms that P 015 allow Restharrow to colonise saline beaches Steven Paul Hayes, Jerry Roberts, Peter Dean, Sean Mayes Antirrhinum genes differentially regulate Tam3 transposition P 016 Takako Uchiyama, Kaien Fujino and Yuji Kishima Vernalization and photoperiod responses among high-latitude/altitude accessions of P 017 A. thaliana from Norway Anna Lewandowska-Sabat, Siri Fjellheim, Asma Naurin Malik, Anusa Balasingham, Ragnhild Nestestog, Jorunn Elisabeth Olsen, Odd Arne Rognli Chilling and freezing responses of Eucalyptus globulus L. clones differing in drought P 018 resistance Alla Shvaleva, Filipe Costa e Silva, Fernando Broetto, Maria Fernanda Ortunõ Gallud, Maria Helena Almeida, Maria Lucília Rodrigues, João Santos Pereira, Maria Manuela Chaves How do plants adapt to highly weathered tropical soils? Emerging clues from a case study P 019 with Brachiaria grass species. Annabé Louw-Gaume, Idupulapati Rao, Alain Gaume and Emmanuel Frossard The genetic diversity of wild species Prunus tenella and Prunus webbii in Serbia and P 020 Montenegro, assessed by the polymorphism of S-locus Milisavljevic Mira, Group LPMB from IMGGE, Group East Malling Research Temperature-dependent intracellular localization of Tam3 transposase in Antirrhinum P 021 Kaien Fujino, Takako Uchiyama, Yuji Kishima Allelic diversity of candidate genes for drought tolerance in a rice reference collection P 022 Dominique This, Romain Philippe, Pierre Mournet, Claire Billot, Jean François Rami, Brigitte Courtois, Roland Schaftleitner, Redouane El Malki, Dominique Brunel and Ken McNally Phosphoinositides regulate a plant K+ -efflux channel in tobacco cultured cells P 023 Xiaohong Ma, Oded Shor, Sofia Diminstein, Ling Yu, Yang Ju Im, Imara Perera, Wendy F Boss and Nava Moran Characterization of CER1 gene activity for cuticular wax biosynthesis in Arabidopsis P 024 thaliana Bourdenx Brice, Joubès Jérôme, Laroche-Traineau Jeanny, Domergue Fredéric and Lessire René Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Can crop adaptation mitigate the effect of climate on food security in the Sahel? P 025 Yves Vigouroux, Cedric Mariac, Vivianne Luong, Bruno Gérard, Issoufou Kapran, Fabrice Sagnard, Monique Deu, Jacques Chantereau, Jupiter Ndjeunga, Jean-Louis Pham, Gilles Bezançon
- 87. 87 Dynamics of phytohormones during the response of tobacco plants to drought and/or P 026 heat stress Radomira Vankova, Vaclav Motyka, Petre Dobrev, Marie Havlova, Jana Dobra, Hana Cervinkova, Alena Gaudinova, Jiri Malbeck and Miroslav Kaminek The Xspecies approach to genomics and transcriptomics – a new way to work in minor P 027 and underutilised crops for the future Sean Mayes, Florian Stadler, Shrvani Basu, Sayed Azam-Ali, Neil Graham, Martin Broadley and Sean May Barriers to the conservation of recalcitrant-seeded plant species: requirement for an P 028 enhanced understanding of cryopreservation protocols Thomas Roach, Farida V. Minibayeva, Richard P. Beckett, Hugh W Pritchard and Ilse Kranner Ecogenomics of extreme submergence tolerance in Arabidopsis wild relatives P 029 Alex Boonman, Melis Akman and Peter H van Tienderen Cotton response to low temperatures : Isolation, characterization and expression analysis P 030 of membrane modifying enzymes from Gossypium hirsutum Anastasia Kargiotidou, Dimitra Deli, Dia Galanopoulou, Athanasios Tsaftaris and Theodora Farmaki Session: Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture Plant production in Switzerland - Perspectives 2050 P 031 Alain Gaume, Peter Althaus, Nadine Degen, Arthur Einsele, Andreas Hund, Roland Kölliker and Michael Winzeler Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture Reducing fertilisers Sensing low-phosphate at the root P 032 Sergio Svistoonoff, Audrey Creff, Matthieu Reymond, Cécile Sigoillot-Claude, Lilian Ricaud, Aline Blanchet, Laurent Nussaume, Thierry Desnos Hormonal control of nitrate influx and nitrogen allocation in wheat plants P 033 Miroslav Kamínek, Marie Trčková, Sasha Daskalova, Klára Hoyerová, Václav Motyka, Ivana Raimanová and Malcol C. Elliott Reduced nitrogen forms in top dressings increase grain protein concentrations via P 034 changes in cytokinin levels Bernhard Bauer, Fritz Bangerth and Nicolaus von Wirén Modeling systems response to sulfur deficiency stress P 035 Steve Dworschak, Susanne Grell, Rainer Hoefgen, Torsten Schaub, Joachim Selbig and Victoria J. Nikiforova Repression of anthocyan synthesis by three nitrate-induced transcription factors acting P 036 upstream of PAP1 Grit Rubin, Jens-Holger Dieterich, Mark Stitt and Wolf-Rüdiger Scheible
- 88. 88 CLE peptide signalling during nodulation on Medicago truncatula P 037 Virginie Mortier, Griet Den Herder, Willem Van de Velde, Ryan Whitford, Marcelle Holsters and Sofie Goormachtig Potassium and nitrogen: where do they meet? P 038 Patrick Armengaud, Yves Gibon, Ronan Sulpice, Mark Stitt and Anna Amtmann Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture Reducing pesticides Role of the Arabidopsis MYB transcription factor AtMYB30 in the control of disease P 039 resistance and hypersensitive cell death Solène Froidure, Dominique Roby, Susana Rivas Gene expression profiling to identify new bioactive compounds acting on plant defence P 040 Valérie Jaulneau, Claude Lafitte, Christophe Jacquet, Sylvie Salamagne, Xavier Briand, Marie-Thérèse Esquerré-Tugayé and Bernard Dumas Co-inoculation with a beneficial endophytic fungus as a promising strategy to reduce P 041 clubroot disease symptoms Jutta Ludwig-Müller, Diana Jäschke, Dereje Dugassa, Stefan Vidal Activity-based protein profiling to study plant-pathogen interactions P 042 Renier van der Hoorn Detection of candidate genes for useful traits in potato using different molecular tools P 043 Enrique Ritter, Monica Hernandez, Florencia Lucca, Jose Ignacio Ruiz de Galarreta, Isbene Sanchez Revealing role of environmental factors of accessibility of pesticides with special regard to P 044 the soil characteristics Diána Virág, katalin Szováti, Attila Kiss Volatile chemical cues involved in plant-insect interactions P 045 Petra Bleeker, Paul Diergaarde, Kai Ament, Michel Haring, Michiel de Both, Rob Schuurink Increased resistance against smut and bunt diseases by specific anti-fungal virus genes in P 046 genetically engineered wheat A. Fammartino, T. Schlaich, B. Urbaniak, W. Gruissem, C. Sautter Towards transgenic lines of Picea abies (L.) KARST. showing toxicity to bark beatle P 047 species Daniela Pavingerová, Jindřich Bříza, Pavlína Máchová and Helena Cvrčková Different viral RNA silencing suppressors have different effects on virus infection in two P 048 Nicotiana species Shahid Aslam Siddiqui, Cecilia Sarmiento, Mariliis Kiisma, Satu Koivumäki, Anne Lemmetty, Erkki Truve and Kirsi Lehto Multifunctional viral genome-linked protein of Potato virus A is an intrinsically P 049 unstructured phosphoprotein Kimmo Rantalainen, Anders Hafren, Perttu Permi, Nisse Kalkkinen, Vladimir Uversky, A. Keith Dunker and Kristiina Mäkinen
- 89. 89 The dotcom mutant series: ORMV-MP transgenic Arabidopsis mutants impaired in their P 050 ability to complement the movement of MP-defective oilseed rape mosaic tobamovirus (ORMV) Carmen Mansilla and Fernando Ponz Tomato genotypes specifically modulate the interactions with beneficial fungi of the genus P 051 Trichoderma Michelina Ruocco, Luigi De Masi, Monica De Palma, David Turrà, Matteo Lorito and Marina Tucci Yielding ability and competitiveness of wheat cultivars against weeds P 052 Nicholas E. Korres, R. J. Froud-Williams, Demosthenis Chachalis, Ourania Pavli and George N. Skaracis Durable leaf rust resistance in durum wheat is controlled by a major QTL in the distal P 053 region of chromosome arm 7BL Maccaferri M, Mantovani P, Giuliani S, Castelletti S, Sanguineti MC, Demontis A, Massi A, Corneti S, Stefanelli S and Tuberosa R Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture Reducing water input A predictive model for drought tolerance selection using leaf anatomical characteristics P 054 and physiological parameters in Ziziphus mauritiana Lam. Kulkarni Manoj, Bert Schneider, Eran Raveh and Noemi Tel-Zur ABA affects root hydraulic conductance and leaf growth via aquaporin content P 055 Boris Parent, Charles Hachez, Elise Redondo, François Chaumont, François Tardieu Over-expression of the HyPRP AtCWLP forms a cell wall-plasma membrane- P 056 cytosol continuum that improves drought tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis and potato plants Arik Honig, Oran Erster, Hanan Stein, Noam Reznik, Eddy Belausov, Einat Sadot and Aviah Zilberstein Plant growth control by water deficit: which process(es) to lead the game ? P 057 Christine Granier, Thierry Simonneau, Denis Vile, Christina Ehlert, Irène Hummel , Sébatien Tisne, Marie Bouteillé, Catherine Massonnet, Juliette Fabre, Marjorie Pervent, Florent Pantin, Gaelle Rolland, Myriam Dauzat, Bertrand Muller Differential expression of sugar transporters in Arabidopsis thaliana during water stress P 058 Maryse Laloi, Julien Jeauffre, Andrée Bourbouloux, Benoît Porcheron, Nathalie Pourtau, Jean Philippe Biolley, Rossitza Atanassova and Rémi Lemoine Growth-dependent expression of aquaporin genes in developing barley (Hordeum Vulgare) P 059 Matthieu Besse OPEN STOMATA 3, an ABC transporter implicated in ABA signalling, drought and light P 060 response Aleksandra Wasilewska, Nathalie Leonhardt, Marta Riera, Christiane Valon, Jérôme Giraudat, Sylvain Merlot and Jeffrey Leung Establishing a system for monitoring aquaporin expression under drought in strawberry P 061 (Fragaria spp) Nada Surbanovski, Olga M. Grant and Hanma Zhang
- 90. 90 Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Cloning and functional analyses of hop transcription factors (TFs) to develop TF P 062 biotechnology of H. lupulus Jaroslav Matoušek, Josef Škopek, Tomáš Kocábek, Zoltán Fussy, Lidmila Orctová, Josef Patzak Leaf and root growth dynamics: How can plants reach their full growth potential in a P 063 dynamically fluctuating environment? Achim Walter, Shizue Matsubara, Anika M. Wiese-Klinkenberg, Kerstin A. Nagel, Grégoire M. Hummel, Maja M. Christ, Ulrich Schurr Impact of long and small non-protein coding RNAs in Arabidopsis root developmental P 064 plasticity F. Merchan, A. Maizel, E. Marin, A. Herz, P. Laporte, B. Ben Amor, S. Wirth, C. Hartmann, L. Nussaume and M. Crespi Unravelling transcriptional regulatory networks that control seed maturation in P 065 Arabidopsis Lepiniec L., Baud S., Berger N., Caboche M., Debeaujon I., Dubos C., Dubreucq B., Harscoet E., Miquel M., Rochat C., Routaboul J.M., and Viterbo D. New barley species-specific genes are required for pollen and tapetal development P 066 Volodymyr Radchuk, Nese Sreenivasulu, Twan Rutten, Ulrich Wobus, Ljudmilla Borisjuk Regulation of AP1 transcription by the floral integrators LFY and FT P 067 Reyes Benlloch, Cécile Hames, Edwige Moyroud, François Parcy and Ove Nilsson Dissection of oligogalaturonide-mediated signalling: role in defence and development P 068 Alexander Brutus, Simone Ferrari, Fedra Francocci, Roberta Galletti, Lorenzo Mariotti, Gianni Salvi, Daniel Savatin, Francesca Sicilia, Francesco Spinelli, Felice Cervone and Giulia De Lorenzo Increased sensitivity and decreased cost using DeepSAGE – sequence tag based P 069 transcriptomics Annabeth Høgh Petersen, Jeppe Emmersen and Kåre Lehmann Nielsen Cytokinins-dependent molecular mechanisms necessary for the stem cell niche P 070 mainteinance of Arabidopsis thaliana root meristem Laila Moubayidin, Riccardo Di Mambro, Raffaele Dello Ioio, Paolo Costantino, Sabrina Sabatini The effect of culture media (in vitro) on the acclimatization of micropropagated pineapple P 071 (Ananas comosus) Eileen O’ Herlihy and Barbara Doyle Prestwich Identification of defense-related genes in sorghum responding to the challenge by P 072 Colletotrichum sublineolum Apple H Chu, Lei Li, Hongjia Liu, Clive Lo Increased nitrite reductase activity in tobacco reveals a stay-green phenotype P 073 Susie Davenport, Peter Lea, Martin Maunders, Jutta Tuerck Function characterization of an anther-specific DFR gene in Arabidopsis thaliana P 074 Lee Kwan Tang and Clive Lo Root enhancement by root-specific reduction of the cytokinin status P 075 Tomás Werner, Ute Krämer and Thomas Schmülling
- 91. 91 Highly complex, random-primed domain libraries for yeast two-hybrid analysis of P 076 A. thaliana interactome Emilie Vinolo, Petra Tafelmeyer, Maryline Masson, Jean-Christophe Rain, Heribert Hirt, Jens D. Schwenn, Martin F. Yanofsky and Laurent Daviet Chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signalling contributes to photoperiodic development P 077 in Arabidopsis Anna Lepistö, Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi and Eevi Rintamäki Analysis of barley (Hordeum vulgare) grain development using an LC-based approach P 078 Andrea Matros, Stephanie Kaspar, Udo Seiffert and Hans-Peter Mock Identification of A. thaliana mutants affected in the iron-dependent expression of the P 079 AtFer1 ferritin gene Céline Duc, Stéphane Lobréaux, Jossia Boucherez, Jean François Briat, Frédéric Gaymard and Françoise Cellier The use of pea (Pisum sativum L.) as a model plant P 080 Jozef Balla, Petr Kalousek, Vilém Reinöhl and Stanislav Procházka Functional characterization of B-type MADS box transcription factors in Gerbera hybrida P 081 Suvi K. Broholm, Satu Ruokolainen, Eija Pöllänen, Mika Kotilainen, Paula Elomaa and Teemu H. Teeri Pattern formation of the Arabidopsis root P 082 Anne Honkanen, Satu Lehesranta, Jan Dettmer, Ove Lindgren, Annelie Carlsbecker and Ykä Helariutta Study of the genetic and physiological control of juvenility in plants P 083 Ioannis G. Matsoukas, Andrea Massiah, Steven Adams, Alison Jackson, Veronica Valdes, Karl Morris and Brian Thomas Mechanics of morphogenesis at the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana: an P 084 interdisciplinary view Magalie Uyttewaal, Olivier Hamant, Marcus Heisler, Elliot Meyerowitz, Yves Couder, Arezki Boudaoud, Henrik Jönsson and Jan Traas Comparing non-cell-autonomomy of miRNAs and tasiRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana P 085 Felipe Fenselau de Felippes and Detlef Weigel Disturbance of Arabidopsis thaliana development by a potyviral infection maps to the P 086 P3/p6k1 viral genomic region Flora Sánchez, Pablo Lunello, Carmen Mansilla, Fernando Martínez, Xiaowu Wang, John Walsh, Carol Jenner and Fernando Ponz Manipulation of Arabidopsis orthologue for characterisation of embryogenesis-related P 087 genes from the oil palm Zubaidah Ramli, Zinnia Gonzalez Caranza, Meilina Ong Abdullah and Jeremy A. Roberts AtCYP38 ensures early biogenesis, correct assembly and sustenance of photosystem II P 088 Anastassia Khrouchtchova, Sari Sirpiö, Yagut Allahverdiyeva, Maria Hansson, Rikard Fristedt, Alexander Vener, Henrik Vibe Scheller, Poul Erik Jensen, Eva-Mari Aro and Anna Haldrup Role of a GDSL lipase-like protein as sinapine esterase in Brassicaceae P 089 Kathleen Clauß, Alfred Baumert, Carsten Milkowski and Dieter Strack
- 92. 92 Development of a technique for non-invasive monitoring of intracellular phosphate P 090 changes in plant cells Helle Martens, Hong Gu, Cecilie Karkov Ytting, Gregor Grk, Anja Thoe Fuglsang and Alexander Schulz 100 years after its discovery, cloning of the tomato gene Potato Leaf unravels a common P 091 mechanism in the regulation of leaf, shoot and inflorescence architecture Bernhard L. Busch, Gregor Schmitz, Abdelhafid Bendahmane and Klaus Theres Pleiotropic effects to (1,3;1,4)-b-D-glucan biosynthesis during endosperm development P 092 in barley mutants Ulla Christensen and Henrik Vibe Scheller Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield The wheat GCN2 signalling pathway: Does this kinase play an important role P 093 in the Protein Content of Wheat? Edward H Byrne, Nira Muttucumaru, Astrid Wingler, Nigel Halford Gene expression in the disease response of potato to PVY infection P 094 Maruša Pompe-Novak, Polona Kogovšek, Lisa Gow, Špela Baebler, Hana Krečič-Stres, Ana Rotter, Andrej Blejec, Kristina Gruden, Niel Boonham, Gary D. Foster, Maja Ravnikar Increasing wheat yields through increasing grain number P 095 Gracia Ribas-Vargas, Jayalath de Silva, Adam Docherty, Oorbessy Gaju, Peter Werner, Mark Dodds, Roger Sylvester-Bradley, Matthew Reynolds, Sean Mayes and John Foulkes A novel role of pectic arabinan: involvement in resistance against the fungal pathogen P 096 Botrytis cinerea Majse Nafisi, Jesper Harholt, Ulla Christensen, Henrik Vibe Scheller and Yumiko Sakuragi Genetic dissection of a QTL for grain Size in wheat P 097 Marion Röder Regeneration and genetic transformation of Russian sugar beet cultivars and production P 098 of herbicide-resistant plants Yana Mishutkina, Anastasiya Kamionskay and Konstantin Skryabin Genetic dissection of seasonal vs recurrent flowering for better management of the P 099 production of fruits in the cultivated strawberry Amèlia Gaston, Estelle Lerceteau-Köhler, Laure Barreau, Aurélie Petit, Sadia Schafleitner, Mathieu Rousseau-Gueutin and Béatrice Denoyes-Rothan Characterization of genes improving cotton fiber quality from allotetraploid P 100 (Gossypium hirsutum) cultivated cotton and its diploid progenitors Anagnostis Argiriou, Georgios Michailidis, Apostolos Kalyvas and Athanasios Tsaftaris
- 93. 93 Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Characterisation of bioavailability of distinctive pesticides by applying model-plants and P 101 optimised extraction method Katalin Szováti, Diána Virág, Attila Kiss Identification of Arabidopsis mutants with an altered response to zinc deficiency P 102 Ana G.L. Assunção, Sangita Talukdar and Mark M.G. Aarts Molecular dissection of sensory traits in the potato tuber P 103 Wayne Morris, Laurence Ducreux, Pete Hedley, Glenn Bryan, Heather Ross and Mark Taylor High sugar ryegrasses for livestock systems - Gene expression profiling of cultivar, tissue P 104 and temperature dependent fructan accumulation Susanne Rasmussen, Anthony J. Parsons, Hong Xue, Jonathan A. Newman Improved carbon supply results in higher protein content and increased yield of winter P 105 wheat grains Nicola Weichert, Isolde Saalbach, Heiko Weichert, Alok Varshney, Jochen Kumlehn, Ulrich Wobus, Ralf Schachschneider, Winfriede Weschke ERGI (European Rosaceae Genomics Initiative) P 106 Laura Rossini, Alberto Vecchietti and Pere Arus Valorisation of waste foliage in industrial chicory P 107 Meriem Bahri, Philippe Hance, Sébastein Grec, Jean-Louis Hilbert and Theo Hendriks Harvesting maturiy and ripening temperature to degreen Harumanis Mango P 108 Phebe Ding and Hairul Azhar Sulaiman Iron, zink and selenium content of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) lines in winter and P 109 spring crop Abdulkadir Aydoğan,Vural Karagül, Metehan Yüce, Özgür Durmaz, Yusuf Varlık, Ismi Gevrek and M. Bahar Erim Towards map-based cloning: fine mapping of the D gene involved in peach fruit acidity P 110 Karima Boudehri, Gaëlle Cardinet, Gaëlle Capdeville, Christel Renaud, Yves Tauzin, Abdelhafid Bendahmane and Elisabeth Dirlewanger Spatio-temporal leaf growth of Arabidopsis thaliana and characterisation of diel growth P 111 dynamics of starch metabolism mutants Anika Wiese-Klinkenberg, Maja Christ, Bernd Biskup, Hanno Scharr, Ulrich Schurr and Achim Walter Improvement of nutritional quality of rice P 112 Holger Hesse, Cuong Huu Nguyen and Rainer Hoefgen The synthesis of chlorogenic acid in artichoke: comparison of two newly isolated hqt genes P 113 Rosalinda D’Amore, Jie Luo, Domenico Pignone, Cathie Martin and Gabriella Sonnante TILLING feasibility in Citrus as tool for genetic crop improvement P 114 Silvia Minoia, Giuseppina Mosca, Angelo Petrozza, Giovanni Sozio, Abdelhafid Bendahmane, Francesco Cellini and Filomena Carriero
- 94. 94 Session: New products Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Exploiting the diversity of form in Miscanthus for increased Biomass P 115 Kerrie Farrar, Paul Robson, John Clifton Brown and Iain Donnison A handy techniques for a promising biofuel brop P 116 Dana Barba and Monica Enache Oligolignol profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana cell cultures P 117 Noemi Nemeth-Iuhasz, Kris Morreel, RubenVanholme, Laurens Pauwels, Geert Goeminne, Bart Ivens, AlainGoossens, Eric Messens and Wout Boerjan Analysis of Brachypodium distachyon cell walls and comparison with other Poales using P 118 novel glycan microarrays Ana Alonso-Simón, Jens Øbro and William G.T. Willats Microbial fuel cell produces electricity from plant root exudates P 119 Jan F. H. Snel, David P. B. T. B. Strik, H. V. M. Hamelers (Bert) and Cees J. N. Buisman Biofuels and polluted soils – a double winning combination P 120 Constantin-Horia Barbu, Camelia Sand, Mihai-Radu Pop, Cristina Moise, Mihaela Stoica and Bianca-Petronela Pavel Session: New products Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Seed-specific expression of influenza A (H5N1) hemagglutinin subunit HA1 in barley P 121 for oral bird immunization Goetz Hensel, Astrid Bruchmueller, Cornelia Marthe, Carola Bollmann, Bjoern Sode, Stefanie Goedeke, Nikolai Borisjuk, Robert Brodzik, Hilary Koprowski, Jochen Kumlehn Preparation of recombinant nucleases with anti-cancerogenic potential, their molecular P 122 analysis and production in plants for medicinal utilization Jaroslav Matoušek, Tomáš Podzimek, Lidmila Orctová, Josef Škopek, Josef Matoušek Elaboration of the technological procedure and chemical composition of a special P 123 confectionary product with enhanced antioxidant activity Diána Virág, Attila Kiss Development of a new functional food product and novel methods to reveal the thermal P 124 degradation mechanism and the prebiotic effect of inulin Attila Kiss, János Petrusán A toolkit for engineering multi-enzyme pathways into higher plants P 125 Fernando Geu-Flores, Morten T. Nielsen, Carl E. Olsen, Mohammed S. Motawia and Barbara A. Halkier Ariltetralin lignans from in vitro cultures of Linum tauricum ssp. linearifolium and their P 126 cytotoxic activity Iliana Ionkova and Elisabeth Fuss
- 95. 95 In planta tailoring of pectin properties for application on medical devices P 127 Katarina Cankar, Marcel Toonen, Bernhard Borkhardt, Peter Ulvskov, Rene Verhoef, Henk Schols and Richard Visser Modification and improvement of a plasmid vector for the production of antigenic P 128 molecules in GM tobacco, for veterinary use Margherita Festa, Luca Militano, Francesco Sala, Barbara Basso Improved immunogenicity of plant-derived vaccines against RHD P 129 Heike Mikschofsky, Horst Schirrmeier, Bodo Lange and Inge Broer A preliminary investigation into the efficacy of TransBacter strains for transforming food P 130 and ornamental crops Barbara Doyle Prestwich, Eileen O Herlihy, Patrick Cotter, Ellen Fenlon and Odiri Dede Ubogu Anti-inflammatory potential of thymol and carvacrol: cyclooxygenase-2 in vitro assay P 131 Petr Marsik, Premysl Landa, Marie Pribylova, Ladislav Kokoska and Tomáš Vaněk Cultivation of ginseng root cultures in various bioreactor systems P 132 Lenka Langhansova, Petr Marsik and Tomáš Vaněk Bowman-Birk inhibitors from lentil: heterologous expression, characterization and P 133 anti-tumoral properties Pasqua Caccialupi, Luigi R. Ceci, Rosa A. Siciliano, Domenico Pignone, Alfonso Clemente and Gabriella Sonnante Production of foreign proteins bearing a functional signal peptide from a potyviral vector P 134 Alicia Romero, Laura Williams, Isabel Bronchalo, Flora Sánchez and Fernando Ponz
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- 97. 97 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Poster abstracts
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- 99. 99 ProfiCrops – our commitment to crop production in Switzerland Session: Plant Science in Europe – Science Policy The three Agroscope research stations, Changins-Wädenswil ACW, Liebefeld-Posieux ALP and Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, are jointly carrying out three multidisciplinary research programs during the period 2008-2011 promoting interdisciplinary cooperation between Agroscope and external partners: ProfiCrops (a future for crop production), NutriScope (healthy nutrition) and AgriMontana (production systems in mountainous areas). Focused synergies and communication efforts are intended to create added value for Agroscope, its co-workers and the stakeholders. Switzerland’s agriculture has assumed a pioneering role for years which deserves to be adequately represented in the media. ProfiCrops is aiming at acquiring, providing, assessing and transferring knowledge in order to safeguard the future for Swiss crop production in a largely liberalized market, and to enhance consumers’ trust in local products. These goals are supposed to be achieved by: • innovations within the production chain on the breeding, cultivating, grafting and disposing level, e.g. with food and non-food crops as well as niche products, novel products of high additional value, new technologies (precision farming), waste management and resources efficiency; • enhancing the awareness of customers and the non-agricultural part of society as to the importance of Swiss crop production with the aim of promoting local products and the appreciation for multifunctional services; • creating the basics for optimized economic structures (on operational and inter-operational levels) and labour planning; • analyzing and demonstrating economic and technical requirements for crop production, and issuing corresponding recommendations as to optimizing current potentials; • hands-on examinations to determine the prerequisites for selecting suitable crop species and cultivation sites in relation to the corresponding requirements and foreseeable developments. ProfiCrops takes a positive stance in that we are committed to agricultural activities and crop production in Switzerland; to achieve that goal we need professional, interdisciplinary and networked research projects. Agroscope acts as a hub and constitutes the critical mass for such research work. By launching horizontal programs like ProfiCrops Agroscope provides «interfaces» for network partners – a truly innovative approach of applied research in Switzerland. More than 130 research projects have been announced to contribute to the mentioned goals of ProfiCrops. In parallel mega projects strongly involving stakeholders and providing a transdisciplinary approach are being developed for the main crop types. The contribution of the crop variety towards a future-oriented high quality Swiss agriculture or strategies to drastically reduce production costs in arable crops are being investigated with the intense involvement of the stakeholders and research partners. In fruit crops a higher awareness and the strategic positioning of our fire blight research competence centre in Switzerland and internationally are aimed. In viticulture, as a last example, development of disease resistant cultivars and its significance will be promoted at the stakeholders and consumers levels. More information is available under www.proficrops.ch P 001 Alain Gaume* Lukas Bertschinger* David Dubois‡ * Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station ACW ‡ Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station ART Reckenholzstrasse 191 CH-8046 Zürich Alain Gaume Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station ACW Schloss, Postfach 185 8820 Wädenswil Switzerland alain.gaume@acw.admin.ch
- 100. 100 P 002 Nicholas E. Korres George N. Skaracis* * Agricultural University of Athens, Dept. of Agronomy Lab of Plant Breeding & Biometry 75 Iera Odos Str GR-11855, Athens, Greece Nicholas E. Korres Agricultural University of Athens Dept. of Agronomy, Lab of Plant Breeding & Biomety, 75 Iera Odos Str, GR-11855, Athens, Greece nickorre@otenet.gr System-thinking essence in decision-making procedures. A conceptual approach integrating weed population dynamics and possible economical outputs Session: Plant Science in Europe – Science Policy The agri-food sector is facing global challenges that cannot be met without support of an integrated decision-making system. In all areas of science, especially in agriculture nowadays, integration across disciplines is an important source of ideas, leading to new avenues for theoretical and empirical investigations, an approach that can be especially useful in the management of sustainable food production, complex requirements on quality assurance, reliability and flexibility in the provision of food, sustainability in people’s trust, control on environmental effects, market and trade organization and so many others. By developing common conceptual perspectives for different management problems it is possible to detect previously unobserved patterns, to understand the processes shaping these patterns more clearly and to use them as a broad basis for decision-making between professionals of various disciplines. In this paper we present a conceptual model by applying a system dynamics approach through an appropriate software tool (STELLA® ) particularly designed for this kind of modelling. More specifically, using basic building blocks, a hierarchical flow chart is constructed, which incorporates biological procedures with biological weed control managerial decisions and possible economic outputs. A simple weed population model is developed taking into account seedling emergence, seedling population and recruitments that contribute to the final weed population size. Possible loses due to intrinsic or extrinsic causes are considered as well. The application of a biological agent for the control of weeds extends the level of population loses resulting in reduced inputs (e.g. conventional weed control methods). This in turn increases crop’s output and consequently the final price and income. Investments and capital rate can be further improved not only because increased income but also of hiring rate. Our purpose is to highlight the capabilities of a system thinking essence hence facilitating the communication and eliminating most of information gap between various disciplines needed for decision-making procedures.
- 101. 101 Investigating meiotic recombination in rice - examining OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B through phenotypic, genotypic, cytological and complementation analysis Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Meiotic recombination is a fundamental aspect of sexual reproduction plant evolution and produces the novel allele combinations which are the basis for breeding selection in crop plants. Understanding the basis of homologous recombination could also lead to gene targeting methodologies in crop plants which could revolutionise plant science and crop genetic modification. OsDMC1 is the rice homologue of the yeast DMC1 gene that plays a role in combination with the RAD51 gene, binding ssDNA to form a nucleoprotein filament in the homology search and strand invasion at early meiosis. OsDMC1 is duplicated in rice (OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B). We have investigated the functions of these orthologues by using retrotransposon insertion mutagenesis lines (TOS17) and through cloning and over- expression of these genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, both wild-type and atdmc1 mutants. Two lines, NF6843 (TOS17; intron 5 insertion) and NF8016 (TOS 17; exon 10 insertion) of OsDMC1A and one line, NE1040 (TOS17; exon 12 insertion) of OsDMC1B were studied over four generations by a number of approaches. The single mutants of osdmc1a and osdmc1b showed retardation of the root at seedling stage but grew normally during vegetative stages and during panicle development. The pollen viability in both single mutants was reduced (51.3% and 54.3% in osdmc1a and osdmc1b, respectively). These produce seed set of 16.2% and 23.1%, respectively, compared with wild-type segregants which typically showed >85% seed set. These single mutants differ from the osdmc1 double mutant generated using RNAi which exhibits almost completely sterile and produced less than 5% seed set (Deng and Wang, 2007). Further cytological observations of male meiocytes revealed the single mutant of osdmc1a and osdmc1b led to defects in bivalent formation at Prophase I and subsequent unequal chromosome segregation and irregular spore generation producing 18.6% triads and 7.9% polyads (n=125). However, the single mutants still produced 73.5% normal tetrads. OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B expression were analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. OsDMC1A was highly expressed in leaf and flower at R2-R6 stages but showed low expression in root. On the other hand, OsDMC1B was expressed in root, leaf, and flower at R2-R6 stages but not at high levels. These results differ from Ding et al. (2001) in that OsDMC1 was expressed at low levels in root and undetectable levels in leaf. However, the single mutants, OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B were not expressed in every tissue. These results suggest that TOS17 insertion in the exon causes complete disruption of the OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B translation. In this study, our data demonstrate that two copies of OsDMC1 are essential for normal rice meiosis and play an important role in homologous pairing. However, the single mutant of osdmc1a and osdmc1b decrease the efficiency of chromosome pairing, without abolishing it. In on-going work, the OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B have been over-expressed in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana and are currently being tested for their ability to complement the atdmc1 T-DNA knock-out line. Lines over- expressing OsDMC1A and OsDMC1B will be crossed to a tester line for genetic recombination developed by Greg Copenhaver, to test for effects on genetic distances in pollen in a quartet background. P 003 Chanate Malumpong Katie Mayes Vera Thole Philippe Vain Sean Mayes Chanate Malumpong School of Biosciences University of Nottingham Sutton Bonington Campus Leicestershire LE12 5RD UK Sbxcm2@nottingham.ac.uk
- 102. 102 P 004 Upendra Kumar Devisetty* Simon Orford┼ Katie Mayes* Sean Mayes* *Agricultural & Environmental Science Division, UK ┼ Crop Genetic Department John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK Upendra Kumar Devisetty Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Division, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington campus, Loughborough LE12 5RD, UK stxukd@nottingham.ac.uk Forward & Reverse genetic approaches for elucidating the role of Meiotic Recombination gene homoeologues in hexaploid wheat Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Meiotic Recombination is a fundamental process occurring in all sexually reproducing organisms. Meiotic Recombination (MR) fulfils a critical biological function ensuring correct chromosome disjunction and is responsible for generating new combinations of gene alleles. An understanding of the genes involved in MR has potential applications, such as allowing manipulation of the level of genetic recombination in plant breeding programs and facilitating introgression from wild relatives. Many of the genes involved in MR are well conserved among eukaryotes. Meiotic recombination in eukaryotic cells mainly requires two orthologues of E. Coli RecA proteins RAD51 and DMC1. But the role of these genes and gene homoeologues in MR in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is not well known. Here we describe forward and reverse genetic approaches used for elucidating the role of TaRAD51 & TaDMC1 genes and their genome- specific homoeologues in MR. In diploid species, deletion of either DMC1 or RAD51 orthologues usually leads to sterility. Wheat, as a polyploidy, offers a unique opportunity to examine the effects of the deletion of specific homoeologues, while maintaining a level of fertility. We wish to use this property to examine events in wheat meiosis further. We have isolated the full length coding sequences for TaRAD51 & TaDMC1 homoeologues using consensus primers based on OsRAD51 & OsDMC1 cDNA sequences. Genome-specific primer sets were developed for TaRAD51 & TaDMC1 based on intronic sequence differences between the three genomes and their specificity confirmed through Nulli-tetrasomic analysis. A Gamma radiation mutant population of a spring wheat (Paragon) was used for reverse genetics purposes. Initial screening of 200 Paragon deletion lines with RAD51 genome-specific primers identified 1 deletion line for RAD51 A genome, 3 deletion lines for RAD51 B genome and 1 deletion line for RAD51 D genome and screening with DMC1 genome specific primers identified 1 deletion line for DMC1 A genome and 1 deletion line for DMC1 D genome. No deletion lines have so far been detected for the DMC1 B genome. Screening for the rest of 300 paragon mutant lines is in progress. Phenotypic and Cytogenetic characterization of paragon deletion lines of DMC1 & RAD51 homoeologues in the field will be carried out this year. Also TaRAD51 & TaDMC1 genome specific primer sets based on exonic sequences are being developed for screening both mutant and wild type Paragon through qPCR, to evaluate the level of expression of different homoeologues and explore whether there are compensatory changes in gene expression in the Paragon genome-specific deletion lines. High levels of coding sequence conservation and the identification of deletions for 5 of the 6 gene orthologues/homoeologues argues for extensive redundancy of function in these genes in wheat. The current results will be discussed in relation to published results from other crop species.
- 103. 103 Identification and analysis of SNPs on a large scale using high-throughput sequencing in maize Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution New sequencing technologies produce now up to 1 billion bases per run. The main difficulty is that with the produced short reads ranging between 25 and 40 bases direct de novo sequencing is difficult. We have used reference sequences generated for genic fragments for the identification of SNPs in pools and individual lines in maize. In experiments, we have amplified fragments with an average length of 560 bases from 4000 maize genes and sequenced these fragments using the Illumina/Solexa platform. Based on the reference sequences, it was possible to assign many of the reads back to the individual reference sequences. Methods were developed which permit the identification of SNPs in individual lines and for allele frequency estimations in pools of lines. The results were validated using available Sanger sequencing data. The results demonstrate that it is possible to simultaneously analyze a large proportion of the genes for the presence of SNPs and in the long term establish a genotyping by sequencing procedure for maize. P 005 Martin Ganal Joerg Plieske Hartmut Luerssen Andreas Polley Martin Ganal TraitGenetics GmbH Am Schwabeplan 1b 06466 Gatersleben, Germany ganal@traitgenetics.de
- 104. 104 P 006 S. Castelletti R. Tuberosa S. Salvi Sara Castelletti Department of Agroenvironmental Science and Technology University of Bologna Viale Fanin 44, Italy sara.castelletti@studio.unibo.it Towards the characterization of a distant cis-acting enhancer element associated with flowering time in maize Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Flowering time is a fundamental trait for the adaptation of maize to different latitudes and altitudes. The Vegetative to generative transition1 (Vgt1) QTL controls most of the variability for flowering time in a population derived from the cross of two nearly isogenic lines (Salvi et al., 2002, Plant Mol Biol 48:601-613). Through positional cloning and association mapping carried out on a set of ca. 100 inbred lines representative of the cultivated temperate germplasm, the QTL has been resolved to an approximately 2-kb non-coding region positioned 70 kb upstream of an Ap2-like transcription factor (ZmRap2.7) that has been shown to control flowering-time (Salvi et al., 2007, PNAS 104:11376-11381). Vgt1 functions as a cis-acting, long-distance enhancer as suggested by the correlation of the effects of the Vgt1 alleles with the transcription levels of ZmRap2.7. One of the hypotheses that we are currently testing is that Vgt1 might function by modifying ZmRap2.7 chromatin through an epigenetic mechanism. To investigate this possibility, the methylation state of both Vgt1 and ZmRap2 will be monitored. Additionally, by comparing the maize-rice genomes within the Vgt1 region, we identified conserved non-coding sequences (CNSs) despite an evolutionary distance of about 50 million years between the two species. Interestingly, the two parental lines have an indel polymorphism caused by a 144-MITE element within one CNS. These results support the notion that modifications in distant cis-acting regulatory regions are a crucial component for the regulation of quantitative traits of pivotal importance for the evolution and breeding of maize.
- 105. 105 How to deal with landrace-based crops? Estimating ‘genetic breadth’ for crop improvement -an example from an indigenous African legume Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution The genus Vigna (Family: Leguminosae, subfamily Papilionoideae) comprises of around 80 species originating from different regions of Africa, America and Asia. It includes several agriculturally important species like V. unguiculata (Cowpea), V. subterranea (bambara groundnut), V. radiata (mungbean), V. mungo (blackgram), V. aconitifolia (mothbean) and V. umbellata (rice bean) among others. The most important African grain legume species are V. unguiculata (Cowpea) and V. subterranea (bambara groundnut). Bambara groundnut has a diploid genome (2n=22) with an estimated C-value of 0.90 pg. It is a self-pollinating, herbaceous annual plant. It consists of two botanical forms: var. spontanea, comprising the wild forms, encountered in a limited area from Nigeria to Sudan; and var. subterranea comprising the cultivated forms found in many parts of the tropics particularly sub-Saharan Africa. The crop has the ability to tolerate a wide range of agroecological conditions and it is popular among resource-poor farmers. It is also valued for its drought tolerance and resistance to pests and diseases. The crop therefore has the potential to play a crucial role in alleviating poverty and hunger, and thereby enhancing food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite bambara groundnut being one of the most important African legume crop, it has no established varieties. Marginal and subsistence farmers grow locally adapted landraces, which are genetically diverse populations selected under low-input agriculture. The aim of this research is to exploit the potential of microsatellite markers in understanding bambara groundnut genetics and breeding. Developing a rapid method to estimate the ‘genetic breadth’ of a landrace is important for breeding and for physiological assessment. We are developing a rapid microsatellite method based on bulked individual plant samples of landraces to estimate this parameter for modelling and for G x E estimates. Our results to date are presented. P 007 Odireleng Molosiwa Sean Mayes Shravani Basu Odireleng Molosiwa University of Nottingham School of Biosciences Sutton Bonington Campus Loughbourough LE 12 5RD, UK sbxom@nottingham.ac.uk
- 106. 106 P 008 Delphine Fleury* Zahra Shoaei* Mingcheng Luo‡ Jan Dvorak‡ Peter Langridge * Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Australia. ‡ Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Delphine Fleury Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics University of Adelaide PMB1, Glen Osmond SA 5064, Australia delphine.fleury@acpfg.com.au Insights into a giant genome: physical mapping of chromosomes 3S in wheat and barley Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Sequencing of crop genomes is the ultimate goal of current plant genomic projects. However the sequencing of a giant and repetitive genome such as wheat with its 1.7 Gb is like facing Goliath with a sling. The construction of a physical map is a preliminary step and gives information of the genome structure. To date, the wheat genome has been studied by analysing single or small clusters of BACs covering a few hundred kb or through genetic analysis at the whole genome scale. Neither of these two strategies has allowed us to build a picture of the physical structure along a chromosome; the first strategy focused on specific loci while the second was too broad to be accurate. We now have huge variation in the physical/genetic relationship ranging from 100kb/cM to 10Mb/cM. By focusing on chromosomes 3 and 7, we investigated the relationship between genetic and physical location of genes in the polyploid genome of wheat. In association with the European Project FP7 TriticeaeGenome, we will generate fine maps of wheat and barley chromosomes 3 and 7. We made a first physical map of chromosome 3S by using the BAC library of Aegilops tauschii, the ancestor of wheat D genome. The target region is the telomeric 20 cM of the short arm of Group 3 chromosomes, delineated by an X-ray induced deletion mutation called ph2a and estimated to be around 80 Mb in size. We anchored about 90 EST on the contigs by using information from the physical map of 3BS, the wheat deletion bin map, the barley genetic map and sequences of the Brachypodium genome. The BAC libraries of barley H genome and of the wheat 3DS chromosome will also be screened. The contig assembly will allow us to compare the organization of the genes along the chromosome 3S in the H, B and D genomes. To tie the physical map to a high resolution genetic map of wheat, we developed three large populations, consisting of 300 doubled haploid lines plus 3,000 single seed decent lines (F5) which will give a resolution of less than 0.01 cM. We also investigated a new method of SNP detection based on sequencing and successfully identified SNP in the anchored EST and in BAC-end sequences of chromosome 3S.
- 107. 107 Characterization of WRKY transcription factors in barley (Hordeum vulgare) Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution WRKY proteins constitute a family of zinc-finger transcription factors that are characterized by a conserved ~60 amino acids spanning DNA-binding domain, the WRKY-domain. Based on structural features, WRKY proteins can be divided into three major groups and subgroups. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a monophyletic origin from basal eukaryotes and enormous radiation events in higher plants, which might account for their enrolment in adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses. Yet, there have been 72 and 81 WRKY genes identified for the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa, respectively. For the cereal crop barley, three WRKY proteins have been described so far. Hence, we have to assume that the majority of barley WRKY proteins remained uncharacterized until now. Using the publicly available sequence information, we identified a minimum number of 45 barley WRKY (HvWRKY) proteins. Comparative phylogenetic analysis of HvWRKYs and WRKY proteins from Arabidopsis and rice identified clusters of orthologous and paralogous WRKY proteins for all three major groups. Strict clusters of only rice and barley WRKY proteins indicate a monocot-specific radiation for some of the subgroups. We used publicly available microarray datasets to monitor gene expression for the 20 barley WRKY genes. Based on this data we conclude HvWRKYs being involved in both, plant development and response to biotic stresses. To gain further insights in the function of barley WRKY genes, we are currently analyzing the expression of a subset of genes in caryopses on sub-organ level. P 009 Elke Mangelsen Joachim Kilian Üner Kolukisaoglu Klaus Harter Christer Jansson Dierk Wanke Elke Mangelsen Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics PoBox 7080, 75007 Uppsala Sweden elke.mangelsen@vbsg.slu.se
- 108. 108 P 010 Boonruangrod Ratri Desai Dhairyasheel Berenyi Maria Fluch Silvia Burg Kornel Fluch Silvia Austrian Research Centers GmbH (ARC), Department of Bioresources / PICME A-2444 Seibersdorf, Austria silvia.fluch@arcs.ac.at Application of cytoplasmic and nuclear DNA based marker systems for elucidation of phylogenetic relationship of Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Musa (Musaceae) is one of the most important staple crops widely cultivated in tropics and subtropics. The present day edible bananas originate mostly from the diploid species (2n= 22) Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana. The diploid or polyploid cultivated banana varieties mostly are sterile intra- or inter-specific hybrids of these two species and have been fixed through hundreds of years of human selection. Therefore, knowledge on the putative fertile ancestors would be beneficial for breeding programs. In the present work cytoplasmic (chloroplast and mitochondria) as well as nuclear genome based (rDNA) marker systems were applied for the identification of putative ancestor gene-pools of banana in a model study based on a mini core collection of 52 genotypes including ten M. acuminata and eight M. balbisiana wild types along with ten AAA, ten AAB, eight ABB triploid hybrids. The collection contained three AA, two AB diploid and a single tetraploid cultivar as well. Both cytoplasmic and nuclear marker systems revealed nearly identical grouping of the wild type M. acuminata subspecies analysed. The data revealed three main groups formed by ssp. burmannica, burmannicoides, siamea and ssp. banksii, errans and ssp. zebrina. However the affiliation of ssp. malaccensis and ssp. microcarpa is still ambiguous. Based on these results the identification of putative ancestor gene pools contributing to the formation of the hybrid cultivars was attempted with special focus on the Cavendish sorts.
- 109. 109 Excess heterozygosity and scarce genetic differentiation in the populations of Phoenix dactylifera L.: Human impact or ecological determinants Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity I: Genome structure and evolution Although extensive research has been conducted on the characterization of thousands of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars worldwide, the population genetics of date palms has never been studied. In this study, we collected 200 individuals from 19 populations from different geographic locations in Sudan. The collection sites grouped according to the type of dates (date palm fruits) that dominates in the area. Ten microsatellite markers were used to investigate the genetic diversity within and among populations, and the correlation between the genetic and geographic distances. The tested microsatellite markers showed a high level of polymorphism. A total of 261 alleles were detected at the ten loci. The overall mean value of fixation indeces equalled -0.163, which shows the present of excess heterozygosity. However, the chi-square tests conducted for every locus in each population indicated no significant deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The AMOVA analysis indicated that about 95% of the total genetic variation existed within populations, while significant differentiation within the type groups could be detected. Although significant isolation by distance (r2 = 0.552, p < 0.022) was detected by a Mantel test, it seems that the spatial effect has become complicated as a result from the exchange and introduction of different kinds of plant material by date palm growers and traders as well as seed dispersal. This complexity was clearly apparent in the weak clustering relationships among most of the tested populations. P 011 Sakina Elshibli Helena Korpelainen Sakina Elshibli Department of Applied Biology, University of Helsinki, P. O. Box 27, FI- 00014 Helsinki, Finland sakina.elshibli@helsinki.fi
- 110. 110 P 012 David Meiri Adina Breiman Adina Breiman Department Plant Sciences Tel-Aviv University Tel-Aviv, 69978, Israel AdinaB@tauex.tau.ac.il The Arabidopsis ROF1 (FKBP 62) is essential for acquired thermotolerance by affecting the level of small heat stress proteins Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation The heat- stress response is the adaptation of organisms to heat, regulated by heat- stress transcription factors (Hsfs). Plants adapt to variation in temperatures by a mechanism named acquired thermotolerance by which exposure to non lethal temperature provides the ability to cope with higher temperatures that will follow. An essential component of acquired thermotolerance is the induction and synthesis of chaperones and heat stress proteins. The regime following the initial exposure to mild heat stress plays a major role in discovering factors involved in acquired thermotolerance. By prolongation of the recovery times after original exposure treatment, new phenotypes were discovered for the rof1 knockout and rof1 over expressor plants. rof1 knockout plants collapsed after exposure to 45C if a delay of 24h occurred after the initial exposure to 37C, whereas the transgenic plants over expressing ROF1 were highly resistant to exposure to 45C. These observations were followed by finding a decrease in the expression level of the sHsps ,Hsp17.6-CII, 18.1-CI, 25.3-P and Hsa32. The level of these Hsps is also very low in the HsfA2 knockout mutants. HsfA2 is a major transcription factor shown to participate in their transcription .HsfA2 interacts with HSP90.1 in the plant nucleus as demonstrated by the BiFC method. HSP90 is a major player in the heat stress response and has many cellular partners. HSP90.1 was shown to interact with the chaperone ROF1 in the cytoplasm and heat stress causes translocation of the complex to the nucleus. Similarly, addition of HsfA2 to the ROF1-HSP90.1 induces translocation of the ROF1-HSP90.1 to the nucleus and complex appears in the nuclei in addition to the cytosplasm. We propose a model which integrates the ROF1 in the long term acquired thermotolerance. Under normal growth conditions the ROF1-HSP90.1 complex is present in the cytoplasm. After heat stress HsfA2, HSP90.1 and ROF1 are induced and a complex ROF1-HSP90-HsfA2 is formed .The complex appears in the nucleus apparently carried by HsfA2. Members of this complex or the whole complex regulate the transcription and/or stability of sHsps which are essential for direct coping with high temperatures .The sHsps disappear in the cells after 24 hours and in the absence of ROF1 or HsfA2 they are not detected. We propose that the absence of the sHsps is the casual factor of collapse of plants exposed to 45C revealed in the phenotypes of the ROF1 and HsfA2 knockout mutants.
- 111. 111 The genomics of germplasm exploitation Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Consumers of whole foods, such as fruit, demand consistent high quality and the development of new varieties with enhanced health, convenience, novel taste, and reduced impact on the environment. The domestication of temperate fruit crops such as the apple and kiwifruit, a focus at HortResearch, exploits both existing cultivars and the extensive germplasm collections of related species and novel accessions. Our genomics research is focused on the key producer and consumer traits. We achieve this by defining the biology of our key fruit traits and developing an understanding of the processes in model plants. Our translation genomics research then transfers this molecular information to our target crops. To do this we have developed extensive fruit EST sequence database and are in the process, through collaboration, of developing Whole Genome Sequence for these crops. In our work on fruit colour, we have described both the metabolic and regulatory genes involved in anthocyanin accumulation. In addition we have analysed novel germplasm of apple with red-flesh and shown that this is due to the ectopic expression of a MYB regulatory gene. A simple rearrangement in the promoter DNA is sufficient to account for this desirable phenotype and we will discuss the molecular mechanism responsible for this altered phenotype and how this information is being used to develop novel red-fleshed cultivars that retain the flavour, texture and long-term storage of cultivated apples. This, along with our work on carotenoids, chlorophyll, flavonols and vitamin C, provide compelling evidence that genomic research on temperate fruit can accelerate the development of novel cultivars with improved quality and consumer appeal. P 013 Andy C. Allan William A. Laing Richard V. Espley Mirco Montefiori Charles Dwamena Rebecca Henry Kui Lin-Wang Andrew P. Dare Roger P. Hellens Horticulture and food Research institute of New Zealand Mount Albert Research Centre Auckland, New Zealand rhellens@hortresearch.co.nz
- 112. 112 P 014 Maksym Danchenko Ľudovít Škultéty Valentyna V. Berezhna Namik M. Rashydov Anna Preťová Martin Hajduch Martin Hajduch Slovak Academy of Sciences Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology (IPGB) Akademická 2, P.O.Box39A SK-95007 Nitra, Slovakia hajduch@savba.sk Twenty two years since Chernobyl disaster: What seed proteome can tell us? Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation The explosion of one of the four reactors of Chernobyl nuclear power plant (CNPP) on 26 of April 1986 caused the worst environmental nuclear disaster in the history. A total amount of about 12.5 EBq (12.5*1018 Bq) radioactivity was released not only to the close surroundings of the power plant but also to large parts of Europe. In the present time, the Chernobyl contaminated area represents a unique area for radioecological and radiobiological research difficult to perform elsewhere. Despite the fact that since 1986 radiation levels in the affected environment have declined several hundred folds, dangerous long-living isotopes such as 137 Cs and 90 Sr remains as main contaminants. Now, 22 years after the accident, the question how plants in contaminated Chernobyl were able to adapt is still open, and needs to be fully answered. Plants are stationary and thus must adapt to extreme conditions in order to survive. The main objective of our research is to characterize quantitative differences on protein levels between soybeans (Glycine max) grown in contaminated (~5 km from CNPP) and control (~100 km from CNPP) experimental fields in order to elucidate molecular mechanisms plants used for adaptation. To acquire complex proteome information about expressed proteins in the seeds grown in Chernobyl condition, the total protein was quantitatively analyzed using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) using wide (pH3-10) and narrow 2-DE (pH4-7) IPG strips. In total 84 2-DE spots were found to be differentially expressed between contaminated and control seeds. These spots were excised from the 2-DE gels and analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for the protein identification. The project has received the funding from FP7 of the European Union (MIRG-CT-2007-200165). This abstract reflects only the author’s views and the Community is not liable for any use that might be made of information contained herein.
- 113. 113 Life in the margins – a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the mechanisms that allow Restharrow to colonise saline beaches Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation The term ‘Restharrow’ was originally used to describe Ononis species, as they arrested the progress of the harrow before mechanisation of ploughing. Restharrow is a common weed throughout Europe, colonising calcareous clay soils and wastelands. Some subspecies O. repens subsp. Maritima and O. reclinata have developed the remarkable ability to colonise sand dunes, shingle beaches and cliff tops. A low growth habit and a long tap root system are thought to allow the plants to survive in exposed habitats with high salinity and variable water availability. Restharrows contribute towards habitat sustainability, aiding the formation of sand dunes and inhibiting erosion along riverbanks, cliff tops and shingle beaches. Restharrow (not a hyper-accumulator), tolerates heavy metals, frequently being found on contaminated waste lands. Onocerin is a secondary metabolite which contributes up to 0.5% (dry weight) in Restharrow roots. The ecological function of Onocerin is poorly understood, with suggestions that it has waterproofing properties, potentially inhibiting the flow of sodium chloride ions into root cells, or preventing desiccation in arid environments. The occurrence of Onocerin across such a diverse range of plant groups, raises questions regarding the evolutionary history and function. Onocerin has been found in groups of angiosperms, pteridophytes and club mosses which have an association with water. That Onocerin has arisen a number of times in distantly related taxa argues for a relatively simple mutation from non- producing antecedents. With the increasing evidence of climate change and the expected increase in world population in the coming decades, adaptive mechanisms which permit crop survival and growth on marginal or saline soils are an important area of future research. A multidisciplinary approach is being used to investigate the biosynthesis and ecological function of Onocerin. Genome mining in model crops, comparative genetics and molecular genetics, have been used to follow the expression of phytosterol precursors; squalene synthase, squalene epoxidase and β-amyrin synthase. Metabolomic (GC/MS) and biochemical techniques such as cell free systems, have been used to follow metabolite accumulation in Restharrow and A. thaliana throughout development and under environmental treatments. By combining expression data (qRT-PCR) and comparing directly to metabolic profiles we will be able understand how plants respond to change in terms of phytosterol biosynthesis. The developed systems have potential to be applied to other secondary metabolites, of a wide range of candidate species under aboitic or biotic stresses and may reveal a wide-spread, but as yet uninvestigated, novel route to plant survival in the margins. P 015 Steven Paul Hayes Peter Dean Jerry Roberts Sean Mayes Steven Paul Hayes University of Nottingham Division of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicester LE12 5RD, UK sbxsph@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk
- 114. 114 P 016 Takako Uchiyama Kaien Fujino Yuji Kishima Yuji Kishima Laboratory of Plant Breeding, Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan kishima@abs.agr.hokudai.ac.jp Antirrhinum genes differentially regulate Tam3 transposition Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Suppression of the activities of transposons is normally essential for host genomes to prevent high frequencies of mutations. To maintain the integrity of their genomes, hosts may evolve various defense systems to counteract the activities of their transposons. Here, we describe the complex mechanisms underlying the regulation of Tam3 in Antirrhinum. In Antirrhinum, several unique regulations of the transposon, Tam3, have been described. Tam3 activity in Antirrhinum is strictly controlled by the growing temperature of plants (low-temperature-dependent transposition: LTDT), by chromosomal position of Tam3 copy and by two specific repressor genes Stabiliser (St) and New Stabiliser (NSt). We compared the effects of the St and NSt loci on Tam3 transposition. In cotyledons and hypocotyls, Tam3 was active even at high growing temperatures indicating that LTDT does not operate when these organs are developing. This developmental regulation of Tam3 activity was differentially influenced by the St and NSt loci: St permits Tam3 transposition in cotyledons and hypocotyls, whereas NSt suppressed it in these organs. We examined the effects of these host genes on Tam3 activity at the molecular level. We found that neither of these genes inhibit the transcription of the Tam3 transposase gene nor its translation, and that the Tam3 transposase has the potential to catalyze transposition in the St and NSt lines. The differences between the effects of St and NSt imply that they regulate Tam3 activity independently. Our molecular data represent that their influence on Tam3 transposition seems to be non-epigenetic. Tam3 activity is regulated by a complex interaction of cues from the environment, development, host genes and chromosomal position. This leads us to suppose that various regulatory systems specific for Tam3 still remain to be discovered in addition to the generally adopted epigenetic regulation of transposons.
- 115. 115 Vernalization and Photoperiod Responses among High- Latitude/Altitude Accessions of A. thaliana from Norway Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Flowering time is a crucial trait in plants adaptation and a complex network of pathways regulating flowering has been identified in Arabidopsis thaliana. Vernalization (prolonged period of cold) promotes flowering by repressing expression of the FLC gene. Variation in the FLC gene, which prevent flowering before onset of favourable spring conditions, contributes to differences in vernalization response. Flowering is also regulated by the photoperiodic pathway with CONSTANS and GIGANTEA genes involved in promoting flowering in response to long day. We have collected a number of A. thaliana populations from high-latitude and high-altitude locations in Norway. These arctic/sub-arctic environments have unique combinations of photoperiod, light quality and temperature found nowhere else where A. thaliana naturally occurs. We present the results of phenotypic screening of flowering time variations as affected by vernalization and photoperiod, and its association with climatic variables and sequence variation in functional genes. Flowering time after 5 different vernalization treatments (0, 3, 6, 9, 12 weeks of vernalization) was scored in 27-36 populations using 5-12 lines per population. Variation in flowering time among populations and among lines within populations was high. Regression of flowering time against temperature, precipitation, altitude and latitude revealed significant clinal variations. Sequence analyses of the flowering pathway genes PHYC, FLC, CRY1, and CRY2 were performed in 15-25 of the populations. No sequence variation was detected in CRY1/2 and SNPs detected in PHYC did not show any geographic/phenotypic pattern. However, sequence analyses in the FLC gene in 25 populations revealed two main clusters among Norwegian populations. Northern populations cluster together and flower significantly later than Southern ones. Phenotypic screening of flowering time responses to 5 photoperiods (8, 16, 19, 21 and 24 h of light) was performed in 10 populations using 3 lines per population and 5 individuals per line. The screening revealed diverse responses to photoperiod among Norwegian populations, and photoperiod response is not correlated with latitude but rather with climatic factors such as winter temperature and precipitation. Real-time RT PCR of CRY2, PHYA, GI, FKF1, TOC1, CO, and FT was performed in 5 populations that had been subjected to 8, 16, and 24 h photoperiod. The results revealed significant variation in expression of CRY2, TOC1, and CO in response to 16 and 24 h among these populations. Variation in expression of CRY2 and TOC1 is correlated with phenotypic response to photoperiod, which suggests that adaptation of Norwegian populations to their local areas may be partly mediated by photoreceptor and circadian clock pathways. P 017 Anna Lewandowska-Sabat Siri Fjellheim Asma Naurin Malik Anusa Balasingham Ragnhild Nestestog Jorunn Elisabeth Olsen Odd Arne Rognli Odd Arne Rognli Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003 N-1432 Ås, Norway oddro@umb.no
- 116. 116 P 018 Alla Shvaleva*,+ Filipe Costa e Silva+ Fernando Broetto++ Maria Fernanda Ortunõ Gallud+++ Maria Helena Almeida+ Maria Lucília Rodrigues+ João Santos Pereira+ Maria Manuela Chaves*,+ *Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica e Biologica, Portugal. + Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Tapada de Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal. ++ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, PO Box 510, CEP 18618-000, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. +++ CEBAS-CSIC, Apartado 164, 30100 Murcia, España. Alla Shvaleva Laboratorio Ecofisiologia Molecular, ITQB, Av. República, EAN, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal shvaleva@itqb.unl.pt Chilling and freezing responses of Eucalyptus globulus L. clones differing in drought resistance Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation The effect of chilling and freezing was evaluated in acclimated and unacclimated plants of two Eucalyptus globulus L. clones (ST51 and CN5) that differ in their sensitivity to drought (ST51 is more drought sensitive). We studied changes in carbohydrates and pigments content, plant water status and osmotic potential, antioxidant enzymes and membrane injury. At six months old 30 cuttings per clone were growing in a chamber with controlled conditions (24/16° C, day/night). One group of plants were subjected to a gradual temperature decreases from 24/16° C to 10/6° C (day/ night), which took 14 days. After acclimation plants were exposed to further temperature decline and measurements were done at Day 1, 5 and 9 under 10/6° C, 10/2° C and 10/-2° C (day/night), respectively. Another group of plants was examined after transference 24 h before from the control to the low temperatures without acclimation at the same days (direct chilling / freezing). The differences in the responses to low temperatures in E. globu- lus L. clones were due to different alterations in carbon metabolism, inclu- ding a faster and higher capacity for osmotic regulation as compared to ST51 clone. Results support our hypothesis regarding higher cold tolerance of the drought-resistant CN5 clone for partial or incomplete levels of acclimation despite the fact that there was no difference in membrane injury between CN5 and ST51 acclimated plants.
- 117. 117 How do plants adapt to highly weathered tropical soils? Emerging clues from a case study with Brachiaria grass species Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Highly weathered tropical soils used as grasslands are characterized by a low available P concentration and often by a high P sorption capacity. Brachiaria grasses are the most widely planted forages in tropical grasslands. What is an adapted Brachiaria species to low-P soils? In addition to high yield, quantitative plant traits such as fine root development combined with high root exudation rates of organic acids and acid phosphatases might hold the clue. Evolutionary ecologists agree that phenotypic plasticity is as important as real genetic adaptation. However, morphological plasticity represents a high carbon/energy-cost solution and may not be sustainable in slower growing species that are adapted to less productive natural environments. Thus, it is essential to develop a strong cost-benefit understanding of key plant traits involved in plant adaptation. B. decumbens has better field persistence than B. ruziziensis in soils of tropical America. We investigated morphological and physiological traits that might underlie the differential adaptation in the two species and asked two main questions: the role of root morphology, inclusive of a mycorrhizal contribution in nutrient foraging, and the function of organic acids and acid phosphatases in P acquisition. Ecophysiological approaches were applied to understand plant growth. The study involved greenhouse experiments in sand culture as well as hydroponic experiments in growth chambers. The morphological trait profile differed between species and the physiological basis for understanding differences in biomass production and allocation involved interactions between P, C and N. Increased root exudation was associated with decreasing plant P concentrations. The consideration of a mycorrhizal contribution revealed a strong effect of mycorrhizal strain specificity on root growth and P uptake. Species differed with regard to the degree of change in various traits during acclimation to low P availability. Our results agree with the general notion that although certain traits are conserved in a wide variety of species from different environments, they are by no means identical in all plants. More specifically, our results shed some light on the poor understanding of tradeoffs between plant traits that are important for P acquisition. P 019 Annabé Louw-Gaume Idupulapati Rao* Alain Gaume** Emmanuel Frossard** *International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Recta Cali- Palmira, km 17, A.A. 6713, Cali, Colombia ** Institute for Plant Sciences Group of Plant Nutrition ETHZ, Eschikon Experimental Station, 8315-Lindau, Switzerland Annabé Louw-Gaume Institute for Plant Sciences Group of Plant Nutrition ETHZ, Eschikon Experimental Station, 8315-Lindau, Switzerland annabelouw.gaume@yahoo.com
- 118. 118 P 020 Milisavljevic Mira Group LPMB from IMGGE* Group East Malling Research** *Group LPMB from IMGGE Vojvode Stepe 444a, Belgrade, Serbia **Group East Malling Research New Road, East Malling, Kent ME19 6BJ, UK Mira Milisavljevic Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Vojvode Stepe 444a, PO. box. 23, 11 010 Belgrade, Serbia milisavljevicm@imgge.bg.ac.yu The genetic diversity of wild species Prunus tenella and Prunus webbii in Serbia and Montenegro, assessed by the polymorphism of S-locus Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Pru Prunus tenella and Prunus webbii are endangered wild species, potentially useful in plant breeding. Both species are resistant to economically important patogen Taphrina deformans and also tolerant to draught conditions. Molecular methods allow designing a sampling strategy that provides good representation of the genetic diversity of plants studied. Those species are native to Balkan peninsula, but little is known about the extent of variability in their populations. The genetic diversity of these plants was screened using highly polymorphic S locus which exerts one of the highest levels of allelic polymorphism known for any gene. The S-locus controls self-incompatibility phenomenon in plants which prevents fertile hermaphrodite plants producing zygotes after self-pollination. The S-locus is considered to contain two complementary genetically linked parts, encoding a stylar-specific product and a pollen-specific product. Stylar S-proteins were identified as glycoproteins with ribonuclease activity (S- RNases). We studied self-(in)compatibility in 18 accessions of Prunus tenella and 10 accessions of Prunus webbii by characterising stylar-expressed RNase alleles using IEF, PCR and DNA sequencing, Nine P. tenella S-RNase alleles (S1–S9) were cloned; their sequence analysis showed very high Ka/Ks ratios and revealed that S-RNase alleles, unlike those of P. dulcis, show positive selection in all regions except the conserved regions and that between C2 and RHV. Remarkably, one of the alleles, S8- RNase was found to be identical to that of S1-RNase allele from P. avium, a species which does not interbreed with P. tenella and, except for just one amino acid, to S11 of P. dulcis. BLAST analysis of the six sequences of P. webbii confirmed those as a new S-RNase alleles. Also, one of sequenced alleles, named S9, was found to code for an amino acid sequence identical to that for P. dulcis S14-RNase, except single conservative amino acid replacement in the signal peptide region, while another, named S3 , was showed to differ only by three residues from P. salicina Se-RNase. Allele named S7 was found to be inactive by stylar protein isoelectric focusing followed by RNase specific staining, but the reason for the inactivity was not at the coding sequence level. Furthermore, in five out of ten analyzed accessions we detected the presence of one active basic RNase (marked as PW1) that did not amplify with S-RNase specific DNA primers. Two of them were amplified with primers designed from the PA1 RNase nucleotide sequence (basic «non-S RNase» of P. avium). Obtained PW1 sequence showed high homology (80%) with the PA1 allele. The evolutive implications of the obtained data should be discussed.
- 119. 119 Temperature-dependent intracellular localization of Tam3 transposase in Antirrhinum Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation In the adaptation to the environment where the plants grow, the temperature is one of the most important factors. In Antirrhinum, Tam3 transposition is activated at low temperatures around 15°C, while it is strictly inhibited at high temperatures above 25°C. Activation of Tam3 that is rapid and reversible response to temperature change occurs during the lifetime of a single plant. Such low-temperature-dependent transposition (LTDT) of Tam3 is a typical example of a response to environmental stimuli. On the other hand, transposable elements perturb the order of the host genomes, and have been immobilized for restriction of their activities to maintain the genome integrity. Previous reports have shown that LTDT of Tam3 is unlinked with the known regulatory mechanisms for transposon activity. Here, we reveal that LTDT is brought about by different subcellular localizations of the Tam3 transposase (TPase) between the low (15°C) and high (25°C) temperatures. The low temperature can locate the TPase in nuclei, while the high temperature cannot locate the TPase in nuclei. At high temperature, absence of the TPase in nuclei is caused not by nuclear export, but by inhibition of nuclear import. Such arrest of the nuclear import did not occur in tobacco BY-2 and onion cells, thus subcellular localizations of Tam3 TPase is considered a unique mechanism to Antirrhinum. Our results suggest that the LTDT of Tam3 is regulated by host factor(s) in Antirrhinum. P 021 Kaien Fujino Takako Uchiyama Yuji Kishima Kaien Fujino Laboratory of crop physiology, Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589, Japan kaien@res.agr.hokudai.ac.jp
- 120. 120 P 022 Dominique This Romain Philippe* Pierre Mournet* Claire Billot* Jean François Rami* Brigitte Courtois* Roland Schaftleitner** Redouane El Malki§ Dominique Brunel§ Ken McNally¶ *CIRAD, CIRAD TA A 96/03 Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Monptpellier cedex 5 France **International Potato Center Av. La Molina 1895 Lima 12 Apartado 1558, La Molina, Lima 12, Peru §INRA_EPGV/CNG/CEA 2, rue gaston crémieux, 91057, Evry cedex, France ¶IRRI, TTC GRC, IRRI DAPO Box 7777, Manilla 1301, Philippines Dominique This Montpellier SupAgro CIRAD TA A 96/03 Avenue Agropolis 34398 Monptpellier cedex 5 France dominique.this@supagro.inra.fr Allelic diversity of candidate genes for drought tolerance in a rice reference collection Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Considering climatic changes, improving crops for drought tolerance is one of the major challenges of plant breeders for the coming years. During domestication and selection events of major food crops in different eco- geographical environments, humankind has generated some selection pressure acting on key adaptive genes that could be still useful for crop improvement. Generation Challenge Program has funded in 2006 - 2008 a commissioned project called “allelic diversity of orthologous candidate genes” (ADOC) aiming to assess the allelic diversity of candidate genes or gene families for drought tolerance, in reference collections of about 300 accessions of seven mandate crops of the CGIARs (rice, barley, sorghum, bean, chickpea, potato and cassava). Here we report results obtained on rice for several genes families, including ASR (ABA-stress ripening), ERECTA and SuSy (sucrose synthase) genes, involved at different steps of drought stress response. A detailed analysis of nucleotide polymorphism from aligned DNA sequences, representing total or partial coding and non coding regions of the different genes studied, reveal different diversity patterns within gene families. Several genes present evidence of selection acting on specific subgroups of this germplasm collection. Implications in term of plant adaptation, domestication and use in plant improvement for drought tolerance will be discussed.
- 121. 121 Phosphoinositides regulate a plant K+ -efflux channel in tobacco cultured cells Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation Membrane inositol phospholipids (PIs) affect various ion channels in animal cells and a few plant K channels expressed in frog oocytes. To find out whether PIs affect depolarization-activated Kout channels in plant cells in situ, we monitored outward K+ currents in protoplasts from cultured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cells with genetically modified PI levels, using patch clamp in whole-cell configuration. Currents identification was based on their reversal potential and block by Cs+ and Ba2+. "Low-PIs", i.e., protoplasts with low levels of PIs, expressing constitutively the human type I InsP(inositol polyphosphate) 5-phosphatase, including InsP3 (inositol 1,4,5- trisphosphate) and PtdInsP2 (phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate), had higher IKSS (net steady-state K+ currents) than all controls, and "High-PIs", i.e., protoplasts with 50- and 100-fold higher levels, respectively, of InsP3 and PtdInsP2 (mimicking a constantly PI-stimulated plant cell), expressing constitutively the human phosphatidylinositol phosphate 5-kinase, had lower IKSS than controls. ABA, known to activate phospholipase C (PLC), activated Kout channel in the High-PIs, and inhibited the Kout channel in the Low- PIs. U73122, a specific PLC inhibitor, inhibited the Kout channel in all cell lines, and reversed the promoting effect of ABA in the High-PIs. These results support the involvement of PIs in the regulation of the Kout channel. Boltzmann analysis of conductance-voltage relationship revealed its shift in a depolarizing direction in the High-PIs, consistent with increased negative charge density on the inner side of the plasma membrane, likely due to increased PtdInsP2 levels at the inner membrane leaflet. Additionally, the maximum membrane conductance was much lower in the High PIs relative to controls and in the Low PIs it was much higher than in controls, reflecting, perhaps, PIs-dependent differences in the number of channels and/or in unitary conductance. P 023 Xiaohong Ma1 Oded Shor1 Sofia Diminstein1 Ling Yu1 Yang Ju Im2 Imara Perera2 Wendy F Boss2 Nava Moran1 1 Faculty of Agricultured Food and Enviroment Quality Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, 76100 Israel 2 Department of Batany, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC 27695, USA Xiaohong Ma Faculty of Agricultured Food and Enviroment Quality Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Room 2221 Bldy A Rehovot, 76100 Israel dodoma9999@hotmail.com
- 122. 122 P 024 Bourdenx Brice Joubès Jérôme Laroche-Traineau Jeanny Domergue Fredéric Lessire René Bourdenx Brice CNRS UMR 5200 Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, 146, rue Léo Saignat - Case 92, 33076 Bordeaux, France brice.bourdenx@etud.u- bordeaux2.fr Characterization of CER1 gene activity for cuticular wax biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity II: Plant adaptation, domestication and conservation The plant aerial organs are covered by a hydrophobic layer composed of very long chain aliphatic components which are assembled in cristals called epicuticular waxes. This layer is involved in the resistance to drought and UV, in male sterility and in the interactions between plants and pathogens. The wax components derive from very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs): aldehydes, alkanes, primary and secondary alcohols, ketones and esters. In the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana, the major components are the alkanes and their biosynthesis mainly depends on one gene : CER1 (eceriferum 1). Indeed, the mutation of cer1 induces an 80% decrease in the alkane content and an increase in the aldehyde amount (precursors of alkanes in the biosynthetic pathway). CER1 might encode for a protein involved in the epicuticular wax biosynthesis : an aldehyde decarbonylase. We have analysed the relative transcript abundance of the genes involved in the wax biosynthesis by Quantitative-PCR, and the quantity and the quality of the wax components by GC-MS, with or without stress (hydric stress, osmotic stress, hormonal stress). Among several candidate genes, CER1 was the most regulated gene. This is why we decided to focus our researchs on this gene and to study its promoter activity. Transgenic plants transformed with CER1 promoter fused to a reporter gene were constructed in the laboratory. They allowed us to localise the CER1 promoter activity in the epidermal cells and in the young aerial tissues. Moreover, the hydric stress increases the promoter activity. At the same time, we have constructed transgenic plants in which CER1 is overexpressed or inactivated under the control of an inducible or a constitutive promoter. In the leaves, the overexpression of CER1 induces an increase in the total epicuticular wax amount more than seven-fold compared to the wild type plant. In low humidity conditions, the leaves are more round and the flowering is earlier in the transgenic plants than in the control plants. The roots are not affected. The fact that the modifications of epicuticular wax quantity and quality depend on the amount of CER1 transcripts and abiotic stress proves that CER1 encodes for an aldehyde decarbonylase and that waxes are involved in abiotic stress resistance, and especially, in hydric stress resistance.
- 123. 123 Can crop adaptation mitigate the effect of climate on food security in the Sahel? Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Several trends indicate an increase in average temperatures on a global scale. Among the potential important consequences of climatic change are those on food security. Sahelian countries have experienced a significant climatic shift to drier climates in the last four decades. However, it is yet unclear if cultivated plants rapidly adapt to such climatic shifts. One of the major cereal crops in Sahelian countries is pearl millet. Pearl millet contributes heavily to food security in the entire Sahelian region and covers more than 65% of the cultivated land in Niger. In this study, we analyzed samples collected in the same villages in 1976 and 2003 across the entire cultivated area of Niger. Comparisons of phenological and morphological evolution in a common garden experiment of 600 traditional varieties were performed over three field seasons. We observed a statistical significant shift in adaptive traits: compared to 1976 samples, samples collected in 2003 displayed a shorter life-cycle, and a reduction in plant and spike size. In the context of a changing climate, shorter life cycle may mitigate the effect of climatic change by allowing flowering and seed production in drier environment than 30 years ago. However, this adaptation is very modest and might not to be effective enough to cope with a rapidly changing climate. P 025 Yves Vigouroux*‡ Cedric Mariac*‡ Vivianne Luong* Bruno Gérard¶ Issoufou Kapran† Fabrice Sagnard†† Monique Deu†† Jacques Chantereau†† Jupiter Ndjeunga¶ Jean-Louis Pham* Gilles Bezançon‡ * Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, France. ‡ Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Niamey, Niger. ¶ International Center of Research for the Semi-Arid tropics, Niamey, Niger. † Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger, Niamey, Niger. ††Centre International de la Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Montpellier, France. Yves Vigouroux Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR DIAPC IRD/INRA/SupAgro/Université Montpellier II, 911 avenue Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier cedex 5, France yves.vigouroux@mpl.ird.fr
- 124. 124 P 026 Radomira Vankova* Vaclav Motyka* Petre Dobrev* Marie Havlova *† Jana Dobra*† Hana Cervinkova* †† Alena Gaudinova* Jiri Malbeck * Miroslav Kaminek* *Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Prague, Czech Republic †Department of Biochemistry, ††Department of Plant Physiology Charles University, Prague 2, Czech Republic Radomira Vankova Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Laboratory of Hormonal Regulations in Plants, Rozvojova 263, CZ-165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic vankova@ueb.cas.cz Dynamics of phytohormones during the response of tobacco plants to drought and/or heat stress Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Plants have evolved considerable capacity to cope with adverse environmental conditions, including water deficit and elevated temperatures. Stress responses include substantial modulation of plant growth and development, which is mediated, at least partially, by phytohormones. However, the function of plant hormones, apart of the key stress hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), is still far from being understood. We found gradual decrease in the levels of bioactive cytokinins (CKs) in tobacco leaves during the drought progression. As upper leaves retained CK content more efficiently than the other ones, gradient of bioactive CKs in favour of upper leaves was formed. Unequal CK distribution affected sink- source relationships in shoots, facilitating protection preferentially of upper leaves. Under severe drought, CK gradient was maintained by the enhancement of CK degradation with cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase in lower leaves. Application of heat stress at the end of drought period led to further decrease of CK levels in leaves. In roots, accumulation of bioactive CKs during drought took place. The effect of heat stress on bioactive CK levels was dependent on the temperature, stress duration as well as on physiological state of plants, ranging from mild increase (accompanied by the overall decrease of CK degradation) to strong decrease (associated with elevation of cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase activity, especially in upper leaves and roots). Both stresses, which are unfavourable for plant growth, were associated with the decrease of auxin levels in upper and middle leaves and their increase in lower leaves and roots. The extent of auxin accumulation was proportional to the stress strength. Accumulation of both auxin and CK in drought treated roots seemed to be involved in the stimulation of primary root growth, which resulted in change of root morphology. ABA levels increased highly significantly at drought, correlating well with the water deficit. Application of heat stress at the end of drought period led to mild decrease of ABA content. Heat stress had a mild negative effect on ABA levels. The results indicate that abiotic stresses impose apart fast changes in ABA levels, which affect both regulation of stomata conductance and stimulation of plant defence mechanisms, also significant changes in the pool, and especially the distribution, of CKs and auxin, i.e. phytohormones controlling plant growth and development. This work was supported by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports CR, no. NPV 2B06187.
- 125. 125 The Xspecies approach to genomics and transcriptomics – a new way to work in minor and underutilised crops for the future Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Affymetrix expression arrays are currently available for 15 plant species (http://www.affymetrix.com/products/arrays/index.affx; 21-04-08) with additional ones becoming available in 2008. All of these (with the exception of the Arabidopsis thaliana ATH1, AG and Medicago arrays) are for major crop species. For genomic analysis, the Arabidopsis tiling 1.0R array is the most comprehensive resource available and the first SNP chip for this genome is expected in Summer 2008. Such resources are very powerful, but require extensive sequence and genome information to design. The predicted scenarios for climate change in the next fifty years suggest increasingly erratic weather patterns and severe pressure on natural resources, particularly water. This is without taking into account levels of predicted population growth. Diversification of agriculture in the developing world and the development of new crops to reduce reliance on the 10 or so major crops which are responsible for the majority of food production at the moment, are critical steps for future food security. For many minor or underutilised crop species a lack of sequence-based resources are likely to limit our understanding of the genetic and physiological processes underlying important traits. Even with high throughput approaches, such as 454 Pyrosequencing and Solexa, such resources may never be developed for some crops. The Xspecies approach (http://affymetrix.arabidopsis.info/xspecies/) uses existing Affymetrix expression arrays to work in species for which no alternative array exists. The basic approach is to carry out a genomic hybridisation of the species of interest against an existing array. A software mask is generated that contains those features which appear to show genuine hybridisation to the gDNA. A ‘custom array’ is thereby generated that can be used to analyse RNA samples from the newly enabled species. To test the potential of this approach in minor and underutilised crop species, we have examined applications in bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc.), an indigenous African legume crop with good drought tolerance. Genomic hybridisation profiles and a derived comparative expression data analysis are presented, together with an evaluation of the potential for bulked segregant mapping of simple traits. To finish, we present an assessment as to whether this approach can bridge the gap in available resources for such crop species. P 027 * Sean Mayes % Florian Stadler * Shravani Basu * Sayed Azam-Ali & Neil Graham # Martin Broadley & Sean May * Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; # Plant Sciences; & Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, UK. & Centre for Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, Chair of Plant Breeding, Technische Universität München, Am Hochanger 2, 85350 Freising, Germany Sean Mayes Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, UK. sean.mayes@nottingham.ac.uk
- 126. 126 P 028 Thomas Roach* Farida V. Minibayeva† Richard P. Beckett‡ Hugh W Pritchard* Ilse Kranner* * Seed Conservation Department, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wakehurst Place, West Sussex RH17 6TN, UK † Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 30, Kazan 420111, Russian Federation ‡ School of Biological and Conservation Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X01, Pietermaritzburg, Scottsville 3209, Republic of South Africa Ilse Kranner Seed Conservation Department Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Wakehurst Place, West Sussex RH17 6TN, UK i.kranner@kew.org Barriers to the conservation of recalcitrant-seeded plant species: requirement for an enhanced understanding of cryopreservation protocols Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Seeds are part of our landscape genetic memory, and through storage in seed banks, of our genetic insurance against climate change. However, an estimated 10%, and in some habitats such as tropical forests, up to 48% of seed-bearing plants produce desiccation sensitive ‘recalcitrant’ seeds, while the remaining species produce desiccation tolerant ‘orthodox’ seeds. Storage in seed banks is a key strategy for the conservation of plants with orthodox seeds, but involves drying and is therefore not suitable for recalcitrant seeds. For some recalcitrant seeds, cryopreservation protocols have been developed to conserve their germplasm, involving isolation and drying of embryonic axes, and subsequent storage in liquid nitrogen. However, there are still major challenges regarding efficiency and applicability of cryopreservation protocols to a wider range of taxa with recalcitrant seeds. The present work aimed at understanding the stresses that accompany the first steps in cryopreservation protocols, wounding and desiccation, both of which are likely to lead to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Excision of embryonic axes from Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) seeds was accompanied by an immediate burst of superoxide (O2 •- ) production on the cut surface. Cell wall fractionation in combination with gel electrophoresis revealed that peroxidases bound to the cell wall by strong electrostatic forces are involved in extracellular O2 •- production. Isolated axes subjected to variable levels of desiccation stress showed a decrease in viability and vigour and increased electrolyte leakage, indicative of impaired membrane integrity. Mild desiccation enhanced extracellular O2 •- production by the embryonic axes. Exogenous application of H2O2, the dismutation product of O2 •- , significantly improved the viability of mildly desiccated seeds. Overall, O2 •- production showed a typical pleiotropic pattern in response to increasing desiccation, reflecting both the adaptive and the detrimental stages of the responses of organisms to stress. In conclusion, our results indicate a complex interaction between excision and subsequent drying. ROS production, although often viewed as deleterious, appears to be an essential part of the response of isolated embryonic axes to wounding, and is modulated by desiccation. In mildly desiccated seeds apoplastic O2 •- and H2O2 may ameliorate the effects of desiccation stress, suggesting that extracellularly produced ROS play an important role in the stress response of recalcitrant seeds. Fundamental roles of ROS in stress response are discussed with a view of manipulating ROS production as a key strategy for the optimization of cryopreservation techniques.
- 127. 127 Ecogenomics of extreme submergence tolerance in Arabidopsis wild relatives Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Flooding is a widespread natural catastrophe with an often devastating impact on survival of wild and cultivated plants. Engineering crop tolerance for waterlogging or whole-plant submergence, either through marker assisted breeding programmes or genetic transformation, is therefore of major agronomical importance, especially given the expected increase in flooding frequency as a consequence of global climate change. Efforts in monocot crops like rice and barley have already resulted in high yielding varieties with strongly enhanced tolerance for the detrimental effects of excess water. The dicot model organism Arabidopsis thaliana displays natural variation in submergence tolerance within the range of several days which is currently being explored for QTL discovery. Moreover, we have recently demonstrated extreme submergence tolerance lasting over three months in Arabidopsis wild relatives. Interestingly, two contrasting Rorippa (yellow cress) species were found to strongly differ in their survival time underwater, associated with higher growth rates of the intolerant R. amphibia compared to the tolerant R. sylvestris. Furthermore, whole-genome transcript profiling using Affymetrix ATH1 GeneChips© of roots after 24 hours of submergence revealed striking differences in the expression of genes involved in anaerobic metabolism, as well as various other functional categories. Genomic DNA of both Rorippa species was hybridized on the Arabidopsis microarrays beforehand to generate a so-called probe mask which proved to greatly enhance the number of genes found to be significantly regulated in our cross- species microarray dataset. Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed the differential transcriptional regulation of key enzymes in anaerobic metabolism between the two species. We postulate that the extreme submergence tolerance of R. sylvestris as compared to R. amphibia (and almost all crop species) is based on restriction of growth underwater and repression of genes associated with the utilization of carbohydrate reserves through anaerobic respiration. The cloning of Rorippa genes associated with submergence tolerance provides a novel source of natural diversity with the potential to ultimately improve resistance to excess water in other plant species. P 029 Alex Boonman Melis Akman Peter H van Tienderen Alex Boonman Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), Department of Experimental Plant Systematics, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098-SM, Amsterdam, the Netherlands A.Boonman@uva.nl
- 128. 128 P 030 Anastasia Kargiotidou *++ Dimitra Deli + Dia Galanopoulou+ Athanasios Tsaftaris *++ Theodora Farmaki* *Institute of Agrobiotechnology, Center for Research and Technology, 6th km Charilaou - Thermi Rd. 570 01, Thessaloniki, Greece ++Department of Genetics and Plant breeding, AUTH, Thessaloniki 54006, Greece +University of Athens, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Biochemistry, Zografou, 15771 Athens, Greece. Theodora Farmaki Institute of Agrobiotechnology, Centre for Research and Technology 6th Km Charilaou-Thermi Rd., 570 01 Thermi, Thessaloniki, Greece. mfarmaki@certh.gr Cotton response to low temperatures: Isolation, characterization and expression analysis of membrane modifying enzymes from Gossypium hirsutum Session: Understanding, preserving and using plant diversity III: Climate change and challenges for the next decades Lipid modifying enzymes play a key role in the development of cold stress tolerance in plants. However, little is known about the role of the endogenous enzymes in cold sensitive species such as cotton. In order to study the response of G. hirsutum to cold stress, expression analysis of genes known to participate in cold sensing and adaptation to low temperatures through second messenger supply and acyl chain modifications was performed. The genomic and cDNA sequences of PLDalpha1 isoforms were isolated and characterized from G. hirsutum and used in an expression study along with previously isolated desaturase isoforms (FAD2). An induction in PLDalpha1 was observed as it has been previously described in A. thaliana. The induction of microsomal delta12 fatty acid desaturases at an mRNA level under cold stress is shown for the first time in plants (Kargiotidou et al., 2008). Quantitative PCR showed that though both delta 12 omega 6 fatty acid desaturase genes FAD2-3 and FAD2-4 were induced under cold stress, FAD2-4 induction was significantly higher than FAD2-3. The induction of both isoforms was light regulated, in contrast a third isoform FAD2-2 was not affected either by cold or light. Expression analysis patterns were correlated with the observed increase in both total and microsomal fatty acid unsaturation levels suggesting the direct role of the FAD2 genes in membrane adaptation to cold stress. Stress tolerance and light regulatory elements were identified in the predicted promoters of GhPLDalpha1, AtPLDalpha1 as well as of GhFAD2.
- 129. 129 Plant production in Switzerland - Perspectives 2050 Session: Science and Society: The challenges for tomorrow’s agriculture Economic globalisation, the increase in the world’s population and changes to its demographic structure, climatic changes together with the increasing scarcity of natural resources are going to have a profound effect on the framework for plant production worldwide. For example, does plant production still have a future in Switzerland? What are the possible development scenarios? What would the consequences be of the disappearance of plant production? These are questions and controversial issues that are often raised. Answers must be found that will enable plant production to adapt to the changes that are taking place and to minimize the risks. Following a workshop organized early 2006 by the Swiss Society of Agronomy (SSA) called «Towards the abandonment of large scale cultivations in Switzerland? Thoughts and Perspectives», the committee observed that, to this day, very little research work has been carried out on this subject and that the interests and concerns of parties associated with plant production are real. A working group called «Plant Production Perspectives 2050» was created with the main objective of identifying and characterizing the changes and challenges to be faced during the next 50 years. Such a vision would allow, in the medium term, the formulation of objectives for the production, research and development, public relations and management of agricultural policy. This action should also allow our reflections to be integrated into similar initiatives developed within the European Union, such as those supported by the SCAR or EPSO (action “plant for the future”). From its inception, the working group wanted to develop such a vision in cooperation with representatives of various bodies from the plant production sector, with the SSA fulfilling the role of a platform for the management of the project and the integration of the various points of view. Two sub-working groups were created at the end of 2006 bringing together Swiss experts from all areas concerned. The first one called «Basic Conditions» discussed questions concerning the evolution of the frame-work conditions of Swiss agriculture until 2050. Its considerations included climatic concerns, demands of society, resources and socio-economic conditions. The second sub-working group called «Systems» defined four scenarios for the future of Swiss agriculture. The group’s willingness to develop scenarios that could be considered extreme such as «Agrotourism», «Regional Intensification», «Sustainable Hightech Agribusiness» and «Bioland Switzerland» aimed to stimulate discussion and get away from a traditional narrow way of thinking concerning vegetal production. During a next phase, these four systems of production have been compared to the framework conditions forecasted. A synthesis of this work resulted in a long-term vision for vegetal production for our country. The report Plant Production Perspectives 2050 as well as a information flyer are available online under the website of the Swiss society of agronomy (www.sgpw.scnatweb.ch). The conclusions of the study were, that the production of sufficient foods of high quality is only possible based on scientific and technological progress in plant sciences and production. In addition, conservation of fertile agricultural land and public commodities such as recreational landscapes, secure supply of drinking water and conservation of biodiversity are a necessity. The SSA highlights the requirements for research and development for enabling a plant production of high quality and quantity in the future.Formulated improvement and research needs have now to be prioritized and better defined with the involvement of stakeholders. This coming preparation phase aims the formulation of a research program at a national level. P 031 Alain Gaume* Peter Althaus** Nadine Degen*** Arthur Einsele‡ Andreas Hund‡‡ Roland Kölliker‡‡‡ Michael Winzeler‡‡‡ * Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station ACW ** IP Suisse, Rütti, CH-3052 Zollikofen *** Schweizer Bauer Verband, Kapellenstrasse 5, CH-3011 Bern ‡ InterNutrition, Postfach, CH- 8021 Zürich ‡‡ Institute of Plant Science, ETH Zurich, CH-8092 Zurich ‡‡‡ Agroscope Reckenholz- Tänikon Research Station ART Reckenholzstrasse 191 CH-8046 Zürich Alain Gaume Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Research Station ACW Schloss, Postfach 185 8820 Wädenswil Switzerland alain.gaume@acw.admin.ch
- 130. 130 P 032 Sergio Svistoonoff*1 Audrey Creff* Matthieu Reymond*2 Cécile Sigoillot-Claude*3 Lilian Ricaud* Aline Blanchet*4 Laurent Nussaume* Thierry Desnos* *Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement des Plantes (LBDP), SBVME, UMR6191 CEA/CNRS/Université Aix- Marseille-II, CEA Cadarache, 13108 St Paul-lez-Durance, cedex, France. 1 Present address: Équipe Rhizogenèse, UMR DIA-PC, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) 911, Avenue Agropolis, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. 2 Present address: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIZ), Carl-von-Linné- Weg 10, D-50829 Cologne, Germany. 3 Present address: Merial, Lyon, France 4 Present address: Monsanto SAS, Route de Crest, 26740 Sauzet, France. Thierry Desnos Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement des Plantes (LBDP), SBVME, UMR6191 CEA/CNRS/Université Aix- Marseille-II, CEA Cadarache, 13108 St Paul-lez-Durance, cedex, France. thierry.desnos@cea.fr Sensing low-phosphate at the root tip Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers With the rise of environmental concerns and the ineluctable reduction of natural resources, new crops will be needed to face new agrobiological conditions. The yields of future crops must satisfy human needs, but with reduced supplies of fertilizers. Reducing mineral inputs is though to reduce plant growth by reducing metabolic activity, however this might be an oversimplified view. By using the Arabidopsis natural variation we have identified a major QTL (LPR1 = Low Phosphate Response1), and its paralogue LPR2, two genes that reduce the primary root growth when seedlings are on a phosphate-deficient medium. The molecular origin of the LPR1 QTL is explained by the differential allelic expression of LPR1 in the root tip (mainly the root cap) (Nature Genetics, 2007). Interestingly, physical contact of the primary root tip with low-Pi medium is necessary and sufficient to arrest root growth. These results provide strong evidences for the involvement of the root cap in sensing and/or responding to nutrient deficiency. LPR1 and LPR2 encode multicopper oxidases (MCO), highlighting the essential role of MCO for plant development. Our results suggest that when the root encounters a mineral-deficient zone, a signaling pathway restraining growth is triggered in the root tip.
- 131. 131 Hormonal control of nitrate influx and nitrogen allocation in wheat plants Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers Many data indicate that cytokinins are involved in signaling nitrogen availability to shoots. An analysis of the sequence of events following restoration of the nitrate supply to nitrogen-depleted maize roots revealed an early accumulation of cytokinins in roots and increased flux of cytokinins via xylem flow (reviewed in Sakakibara et al., Trends in Plant Sci. 11:440- 448, 2006). We have demonstrated the opposite effect (i.e. an enhancement of nitrate influx and nitrogen accumulation) in wheat plants in response to an increase of cytokinin content due to up-regulation of cytokinin biosynthesis or to application of cytokinin. Plants grown hydroponically absorbed most of their nitrate (over 60%) during the phase of vegetative growth and its uptake decreased sharply after anthesis. Following anthesis most of the nitrogen required for grain development was mobilized from other parts of the plant, especially the leaves. Measurements of 15 N accumulation in various wheat organs from a pulse of 15 NO3 - supplied through the nutrient solution showed that some 60% to 90% of the nitrogen located in mature grains was absorbed prior to anthesis. When leaf senescence was delayed by the enhancement of cytokinin accumulation in leaves due to the expression of the ipt gene under the control of a senescence-induced SAG12 promoter, nitrate influx increased significantly and the period of active nitrate uptake doubled up to 30 days after anthesis. The delayed leaf senescence also deferred remobilization of the absorbed nitrogen from the slowly senescing leaves thus reducing its availability for the grains during the early stage of their development. The retention and accumulation of nitrogen in leaves did not occur when cytokinin was applied to the whole plant so there was a significant increase in grain yield. Interestingly, the promotive effects of both endogenously synthesized and applied cytokinin described above were found only when the plants were grown under conditions where nitrogen supply was limited. This suggests that cytokinins can enhance the ability of plants to cope with nitrogen deficiency and prevent the yield losses. This effect was confirmed in field experiments where application of cytokinin increased the grain yield by up to 10% depending on the availability of nitrogen and weather conditions. This research was supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and Ministry of Agriculture. (grants No. IAA600380805, 1M06030 and MZe 000270060, respectively). P 033 Miroslav Kamínek * Marie Trčková*† Sasha Daskalova ††† Klára Hoyerová* Václav Motyka* Ivana Raimanová *† Malcolm C. Elliott ††† *Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojová 263, CZ 165 02 Prague 6 Czech Republic. *†Crop Reserch Institute. Drnovská 507, CZ 161 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic. †††Norman Borlaug Institute for Plant Sccience Research, De Montfort University, Leicester LE7 9SU, UK. Miroslav Kamínek Institute of Experimental Botany Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Rozvojová 263 CZ 165 02 Prague 2 Czech Republic kaminek@ueb.cas.cz
- 132. 132 P 034 Bernhard Bauer Fritz Bangerth Nicolaus von Wirén Bernhard Bauer Molekulare Pflanzenernährung Institut für Pflanzenernährung Universität Hohenheim D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany bbauerdo@uni-hohenheim.de Reduced nitrogen forms in top dressings increase grain protein concentrations via changes in cytokinin levels Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers Urea, ammonium and nitrate are the most important nitrogen forms employed in agricultural plant production. Although nitrate has been shown to act as a signal for metabolism and plant development in physiological studies, so far no use is made of the signalling effect of different N forms in cereal plant production. To investigate the effect of different N forms on cytokinin concentrations in leaves, we performed nutrient solution experiments with spring barley. We observed that cytokinin concentrations and protein remobilisation in flag leafs were strongly influenced by the N form supplied to the nutrient solution after flag leaf appearance. To reproduce this N form-dependent effect in field trials, winter wheat plants were fertilised with stabilised N forms in the late top dressing. Supply of nitrate increased the cytokinin concentration in the flag leaf, while ammonium und especially urea led to decreased cytokinin concentrations. Lower cytokinin concentrations in flag leaves coincided with protein enrichment in the grains. This indicates a more efficient re-translocation of nitrogen from the flag leaf after ammonium or urea fertilisation. This study points to the possibility that the use of different N forms for N fertilization to cereal crops can serve as a means to manipulate N remobilisation and N use efficiency of lately applied N fertilisers.
- 133. 133 Modeling systems response to sulfur deficiency stress Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers Cysteine and methionine essential for human and animal nutrition are sulfur- containing amino acids synthesised in plants. That’s why understanding of how inorganic sulfur is uptaken by plants and built into the organic molecules in the process of sulfur assimilation is important on the way to sustainable agriculture. As complex biological systems, plants subsist as integrated molecular, organelle, cell, tissue and organ entities being in permanent synergistic coordination. The process of sulfur uptake and assimilation is an integral part of this dense network of influences, its reconstruction may help in manipulating the bio-production of organic sulfur-containing compounds and reducing fertilisers. New high throughput technologies allow the systems view on the coordination of complex processes in living organisms. Among them, transcriptomics and metabolomics studies were applied to Arabidopsis plants subjected to sulfur deficiency stress. From the integrated analysis of the obtained data the mosaic picture of distinct sulfur stress response events and processes is starting to be assembled into the whole systems network of sulfur assimilation. In the time trajectory of sulfur stress response, two systems’ states can be distinguished. The first state of short-term responses is characterized by the development of enhanced lateral roots exploring the space in search for the lacking nutrient. When this physiological reaction can not be accomplished by bringing the system back to the initial state of sulfur sufficiency, a new program is toggled aiming at saving the organismal resources for vital seed production. We describe an approach for representing and reasoning about these two system states, as well as the state transitions between them, using the concept of action languages. To build the model of Arabidopsis plants responding to hypo-sulfur stress, we compiled the available data on the behaviour of the particular system elements and on their mutual coherence. This data was translated into a formal causal model by formalising states in terms of individual fluents and known knowledge of changes between these states in terms of actions (as causally directed connections between fluents and actions). Fluents were represented by genes, metabolites, or more complex phenotypical traits and actions corresponded to particular cellular processes. In such a way, a systems’ state is described in a query by a combination of fluent/action states, and examined for the following constraints: 1) Analysis of an initial state and a modelled time of a query fluent to hold 2) Combinatorial manner and synergism in functioning of biosystem constituents 3) Essentiality of causal hierarchies for systems functioning 4) Redundant side branches of informational flows through analysis of action essentiality 5) Fluent essentiality through comparative simulation of alternative models. The approach has proved to be useful for reconstructing and reasoning about the regulation of nutrient uptake and assimilation by plants. It showed also promise for the in silico probing of putative effects of the mutations on the stability and flexibility of a biological system. P 035 Steve Dworschak* Susanne Grell* Rainer Höfgen** Torsten Schaub* Joachim Selbig* Victoria J. Nikiforova** * Institut für Informatik, Universität Potsdam, Germany. ** Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany. Victoria J. Nikiforova Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany nikiforova@mpimp-golm.mpg.de
- 134. 134 P 036 Grit Rubin Jens-Holger Dieterich Mark Stitt Wolf-Rüdiger Scheible Grit Rubin Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology 14476 Potsdam, Germany rubin@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Repression of anthocyan synthesis by three nitrate- induced transcription factors acting upstream of PAP1 Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers Signals derived from nitrate per se have a broad impact on gene expression, resulting in the reprogramming of nitrogen and carbon metabolism to induce efficient nitrate uptake and assimilation. Root growth and architecture, induction of flowering, senescence and anthocyan production are also adjusted by signals derived from internal and external nitrate. To obtain insights in the regulatory infrastructure underlying these changes, transcription factors (TFs) strongly regulated by nitrate were identified using Affymetrix genechips and high-throughput real time RT-PCR. Out of these, three related genes were selected for functional analysis. Constitutive over-expression (OX) of each of the three TF genes led to a “stay green” phenotype with strongly reduced anthocyan accumulation in nitrogen-deprived conditions both in young seedlings grown in axenic culture as well as in adult plants grown on soil. Additional visual phenotypes of the OX plants include accelerated development, a higher germination rate and increased length of the main root in axenic culture as well as early flowering with more lateral branches when grown on soil under low nitrogen conditions. Real time RT-PCR and Affymetrix genechip analysis reveal strongly reduced expression of regulatory genes (PAP1, PAP2) and several key enzymes of anthocyan biosynthesis (e.g. DFR, ANS, AGT, GST) in all OX lines grown in N-deprived conditions, thus confirming the reduced anthocyan synthesis phenotype at the molecular level. A strongly decreased amount of cyanidin glucosides in OX plants confirm the reduced anthocyan synthesis at the metabolite level. Other conditions, like phosphate deprivation, high light, high sugar and cold, that normally induce anthocyan synthesis, were unable to override the effect of the over-expression. Expression and metabolite data also show that these TF influence the uptake and assimilation of nitrate in the plant.
- 135. 135 CLE peptide signalling during nodulation on Medicago truncatula Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers Legumes form symbiotic interactions with soil borne bacteria called rhizobia. Those interactions are characterized by the development of new root organs, the nodules in which bacteria colonize the inner cells and fix nitrogen which is used by the plants. In return the microsymbiont receives carbon sources and a protective niche. The classical hormones ethylene, cytokinin and auxin are involved in the initiation and coordination of the nodulation process. We suspect that a new class of hormones, the peptide hormones, and more specifically the CLE peptides also have an important function. Until now, CLE peptides were only assigned a role in shoot, flower and root meristem maintenance, in vascular development and in nematode feeding cell formation. By sequence analysis of the Medicago truncatula genome and MtEST libraries, we identified 25 MtCLE peptide genes. qPCR analysis revealed that 3 of them, MtCLE4, 12 and 13 are upregulated from early stages of nodulation on. Promoter-GUS analysis of the three MtCLE peptide genes indicated that each of them is activated in the nodule meristem. Moreover, Mtcle13 is also expressed very early in the nodule primordia. RNAi analysis of Mtcle13 by use of Agrobacterium rhizogenes transformation, resulted in a retarded and diminished nodulation. No major RNAi phenotypes could be observed for the other two CLE peptide genes. This could be the result of redundancy, as this has often been observed for CLE peptides. In parallel to the RNAi, the ectopic expression of the three CLE peptide genes was performed. A Nod¯ phenotype was generated when overexpressing Mtcle12 and Mtcle13. In addition, systemic effects were observed on the non transformed parts of the composite plants. The results gained until now, suggest a role for at least one of the nodule specific MtCLE peptide genes in the dedifferentiation of cortical cells during the early stages of nodulation. P 037 Virginie Mortier Griet Den Herder Willem Van de Velde Ryan Whitford Marcelle Holsters Sofie Goormachtig Virginie Mortier VIB - UGent Technologiepark 927 9052 Zwijnaarde Belgium vimor@psb.ugent.be
- 136. 136 P 038 Patrick Armengaud1 Yves Gibon2 Ronan Sulpice2 Mark Stitt2 Anna Amtmann1 1 Plant Science Group, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom 2 Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant physiology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany Patrick Armengaud Plant Science Group, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK p.armengaud@bio.gla.ac.uk Potassium and nitrogen: where do they meet? Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing fertilisers Regulation of nutrient levels involves perception and signalling mechanisms to regulate nutrient uptake, assimilation and storage in plant cells. At the whole plant level, mineral nutrient levels are adjusted to best meet specific developmental, environmental and organ requirements through regulation of assimilation, storage and re-allocation in/between different tissues. The complexity of nutrient homeostasis is further increased by the fact that deficiency in one nutrient can have serious effects on the uptake and usage of other nutrients, for example, interactions between N and K are well known to farmers. Despite intensive research into the molecular processes underlying perception and integration of mineral nutrients we still lack basic understanding of how the adaptive responses to individual nutrients and the signalling pathways involved interact with each other. Microarray studies from our lab revealed the down-regulation of several NRT2 nitrate transporters in response to K deficiency, which was quickly reversed after K re-supply. This down-regulation of NRT2 transcripts can explain reduced nitrate uptake capacity observed in K-starved crops but raises questions about the physiological implications of such a response and the nature of the signal. To answer these questions we carried out a comprehensive comparative analysis of primary metabolites and enzyme activities in control, K-deficient and K re-supplied plants. The results from these studies provide first hints as to which enzymes might be primary targets of K- deficiency, and which metabolites might act as metabolic signals for K- deficiency. Since several of these targets and signals are known to regulate K-and nitrate-transporters our data provide exciting new evidence for feedback regulation between metabolism and ion transport. A detailed view of carbon and nitrogen metabolism during K-deficiency and re-supply will be presented at the meeting.
- 137. 137 Role of the Arabidopsis MYB transcription factor AtMYB30 in the control of disease resistance and hypersensitive cell death Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides The Hypersensitive Response (HR), characterized by a rapid and localized cell death at the inoculation site, is one of the most efficient resistance reactions to pathogen attack in plants. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms leading to the HR will enable us to reduce pesticide use in agriculture. We previously found AtMYB30 as specifically, rapidly and transiently expressed during incompatible interactions between Arabidopsis and bacterial pathogens. We also demonstrated that AtMYB30 is a positive regulator of the hypersensitive cell death. Transcriptome analysis, together with recent molecular, genetic and biochemical studies, show that putative AtMYB30 target genes are involved in the lipid biosynthesis pathway leading to the production of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), suggesting a role of this pathway in the control of the HR and plant defence responses. New strategies aiming at (i) studying the subcellular localization of AtMYB30, (ii) characterizing posttranslational modifications within the protein, and (iii) identifying proteins that may interact and work together with AtMYB30 in the initiation of the HR will be presented. These studies indicate that ubiquitination of AtMYB30 may modulate AtMYB30 activity and its control of the plant HR and defence responses. P 039 Solène Froidure Dominique Roby Susana Rivas Solène Froidure Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes-Microorganismes (LIPM), UMR CNRS/INRA 2594/441, BP52627, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France Solene.Froidure@toulouse.inra.fr
- 138. 138 P 040 Jaulneau Valérie Lafitte Claude Jacquet Christophe Salamagne Sylvie Briand Xavier Esquerré-Tugayé Marie-Thérèse Dumas Bernard Jaulneau Valérie UMR5546 CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III Pôle de Biotechnologie Végétale 24, chemin de Borde Rouge BP 42617 Auzeville 31326 Castanet-Tolosan France jaulneau@scsv.ups-tlse.fr BiotechMarine Zone Industrielle - BP65 22260 Pontrieux FRANCE Gene expression profiling to identify new bioactive compounds acting on plant defence Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides The ability of plants to defend themselves against pathogens depends on the perception of signalling molecules, called elicitors, released during infection. Since elicitors induce plant defence, they might be considered as alternative tools for disease control in agronomic crops. Industrial use of elicitors needs the identification of abundant sources of these molecules and characterization of their biological activity. Recently, we used the model legume Medicago truncatula to show that a crude extract of the green algae Ulva spp. was a able to elicit defence reactions and to induce protection against a fungal pathogen (Cluzet et al., 2004, Plant Cell Environ. 27 : 917). Here we report on the identification of a new polysaccharide purified from this Ulva spp extract and the use of global gene expression profiling to characterize biological activity of this compound. High and low molecular weight molecules contained in the extract were sized-fractionated. Analyses of the fractions revealed that biological activity was present only in the fraction of high molecular weight. Physical and chemical analyses of this fraction showed that it contained most exclusively a high molecular weight sulfated polysaccharide named ulvan, whose main constituent is a disaccharide unit, -D-glucuronosyluronic acid (1→ 4) L- rhamnose 3 sulfate. This purified polysaccharide was sprayed on M. truncatula leaves and gene profiling analyses were performed using oligo microarrays allowing the monitoring of more than 16,000 genes. Responses to ulvan were compared to those induced upon methyl jasmonate and acibenzolar-S-methyl (a salicylic acid analog) treatments. These analyses revealed that ulvan treatment induced distinct functional gene classes including defense-related genes and genes involved in nitrate and sulphate metabolisms. Interestingly, ulvan gene expression signature showed significant similarity to methyl jasmonate. Altogether, the results suggest that plant responses to ulvans are mediated by a methyl jasmonate dependent signalling pathway and highlight the use of functional genomics to develop new bioactive compounds for plant protection.
- 139. 139 Co-inoculation with a beneficial endophytic fungus as a promising strategy to reduce clubroot disease symptoms Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides The control of the clubroot disease, one of the most damaging within the familiy of Brassicaceae, is difficult due to the obligate life style of the pathogen Plasmodiophora brassicae. Consequently, it is of high interest to understand the underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis. In addition, the search for alternative methods to control this devastating plant diesease is desirable. In this study we have therefore investigated the ability of an endophytic fungus of the genus Acremonium to influence clubroot formation in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which is a good host to the clubroot pathogen P. brassicae. When host plants were infected with P. brassicae alone, they formed the typical root galls accompanied by stunted growth of the aereal parts of the plant. After co-inoculation with Acremonium sp. we found smaller root galls and the phenotype of the shoots was comparable to that of uninfected plants. In addition, the smaller root galls were accompanied by fewer pathogenic structures in the galls and especially a reduction in resting spore formation was found. This led us to the hypothesis that development of P. brassicae was delayed. Using quantitative RT-PCR to monitor the expression of a small number of P. brassicae genes the delay in development was confirmed. The fungus Acremonium had colonized the root as well as shoot tissue of the host plant as shown by Real Time RT- PCR. Furthermore, we identified a time window in which the endophyte had to be administered in green house experiments. These results are promising to be further developed in the context of a complex disease management to reduce clubroot symptoms. Future studies will aim at the elucidation of the mechanism by which Acremonium sp. can delay the development of the clubroot pathogen. P 041 Jutta Ludwig-Müller* Diana Jäschke* Dereje Dugassa† Stefan Vidal† *Institute for Botany, Technische Universität Dresden, Zellescher Weg 20b, 01062 Dresden, Germany †Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany Jutta Ludwig-Müller Institute for Botany Technische Universität Dresden D-01062 Dresden, Germany Jutta.Ludwig- Mueller@tu.dresden.de
- 140. 140 P 042 Renier van der Hoorn Plant Chemetics Lab Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research Carl-von-Linne Weg 10 50829 Cologne, Germany hoorn@mpiz-koeln.mpg.de Activity-based protein profiling to study plant-pathogen interactions Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) is a powerful technology to display the activities of classes of enzymes in plants during their infection by pathogens. The technology is based on biotinylated inhibitors that covalently react with the active site residues of enzymes in an activity-dependent manner. The biotinylation is irreversible, which facilitates further analysis by mass spectrometry and protein blots. The activity of papain-like cysteine proteases can be monitored using DCG-04, a biotinylated version of E-64, a mechanism-based inhibitor of papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs). We used this technology to show that tomato plants create a proteolytic environment in the apoplast during defense. Of these PLCPs, transcription of only PIP1 and RCR3 is induced by treatment with benzothiadiazole (BTH), which triggers the salicylic acid-regulated defence pathway. Sequencing PLCP alleles of tomato relatives revealed that only PIP1 and RCR3 are under strong diversifying selection, resulting in variant residues around the substrate binding groove. The doubled number of variant residues in RCR3 suggests that RCR3 is under additional adaptive selection, probably to prevent autoimmune responses. AVR2 selectively inhibits only PIP1 and RCR3, and one of the naturally occurring variant residues in RCR3 affects AVR2 inhibition. The higher accumulation of PIP1 protein levels when compared to RCR3 indicates that PIP1 might be the real virulence target of AVR2 and that RCR3 acts as a decoy for AVR2 perception in plants carrying the Cf-2 resistance gene. Besides Avr2, we have evidence that other tomato PLCPs are targeted by secreted inhibitors form Phytophthora and Pseudomonas. Current work in the Plant Chemetics lab is focused on understanding the role of these enzymes, and further expanding ABPP to monitor activities of other enzyme classes in living tissues during infection.
- 141. 141 Detection of candidate genes for useful traits in potato using different molecular tools Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides Molecular markers are useful to construct linkage maps and to localize monogenic and polygenic traits, allowing the efficient introgression and selection of individuals with specific characteristics already in breeding material. They can accelerate breeding programs to obtain superior cultivars for sustainable agriculture and better adapted to present and future environmental threats. In potato large amounts of genomic resources are being established within the frame of international projects including a potato genome sequencing project. Traditionally, markers used for linkage mapping and QTL analyses in potato were neutral markers and identify generally only genomic DNA. Linkage distances to QTLs and varying allelic configurations restrict the application of these markers to specific genetic backgrounds. Therefore, it is necessary to detect directly the genes which influence a trait of interest and to analyze and compare the effects of their different alleles. Such marker types can be applied directly in marker-assisted selection, independent of the genetic background and are useful to establish functional maps. Different molecular tools have been applied to detect resistance or response genes to various potato pathogens and quality genes. These include transcriptome mapping based on the cDNA-AFLP technique combined with co-location analyses between QTLs and TDFs, the use of differential cDNA- AFLP and microarray analyses. The cDNA-AFLP technique targets partial cDNAs and allows to monitor differential gene expression genome wide using appropriate mRNA populations. Moreover, allelic differences of constitutively expressed genes can generate segregating polymorphisms for linkage mapping. In this way a transcriptome map containing around 700 cDNA markers was constructed. The map was anchored to the bins of a high-density reference map of potato. Subsequently over 200 published QTLs and genes were projected onto this map. cDNA markers which are co-located with published QTLs for pathogen resistance represent potential candidate genes controlling the trait. Such bands were cloned, sequenced and homology searches were performed. Several interesting homologies were detected which have a relevant biological meaning. Differential cDNA-AFLP was applied to detect resistance or response genes for nematode (Globodera pallida) and Phytophthora infestans infections and for water stress in a set of Solanum wild species. In all three case studies several differentially expressed transcripts showed significant homologies with known resistance genes or stress proteins. The global response was much higher in resistant accessions and concentrated in the infected organs. Microarray analyses were applied to monitor differential expression of cDNAs in three different Solanum accessions after inoculation with G. pallida and in five accessions after infection with P. infestans. Several cDNAs with homologies to known resistance genes were detected in all cases. Comparative analyses revealed a variable structure of the response depending on the particular genotype. The results of the different studies were integrated by mapping the detected cDNAs onto the reference map. In part, they were found to be co-located with relevant published QTLs. P 043 Enrique Ritter Monica Hernandez Florencia Lucca Jose Ignacio Ruiz de Galarreta Isbene Sánchez Enrique Ritter NEIKER – Tecnalia Basque Institute for Research and Development in Agriculture Apartado 46 E-01080 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain eritter@neiker.net
- 142. 142 P 044 Diána Virág Katalin Szováti Attila Kiss Diána Virág Eszterházy Károly University, EGERFOOD Regional Knowledge Centre, Leányka street 6. 3300, Eger, Hungary viragdia@ektf.hu Revealing role of environmental factors of accessibility of pesticides with special regard to the soil characteristics Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides Bioavailability of pesticides is tailored by several crucial factors including both biotic and abiotic feature. Among abiotic factors soils’ characteristics play the most relevant role, as the extent of interactions between pesticides and soils may vary on a large scale depending on the soil-type. In order to be able to characterize these adsorption processes it is of high interest to model accessibility of widely used pesticides, as well as to provide extensive comparison of different methods. Our work signifies major innovations in terms of applying distinctive extraction model systems and involving pesticides have not been studied so far for accessibility. Impacts of environmental conditions, including major soil types and parameters were also assessed in our studies. Applying 5 diverse extraction methods provided solid basis for proper comparison and selection of the best method, as well as led to authentic estimation of pesticide residues. The accessibility and the extent were investigated for 3 different types of soil (sandy, brown forest and alluvial soil) and 5 pesticides (simazin, chloropyrifos, acetochlor, diuron and) at different pH values, in cases of diverse organic matter contents. The effect of microbiological activity has also been studied to estimate the contribution of the microbiological systems to pesticide bioavailability. Marked differences were observed between extractable amounts of pesticides from sterilized and non sterilized soil samples. Major goal was to make a comprehensive comparison between different experimental methods to model accessibility of pesticides. Six chemically much different pesticide (simazine, acetochlor, chlorpyrifos, diuron, pirimicarb) were applied to three soil types (brown forest soil, sandy and alluvial soils). The extracted amounts were determined by GC/MS and HPLC/MS technique. The five distinctive types of applied extracting solvents displayed different effectivity for mobilizing pesticides from soil. The extracted pesticide amounts were in inverse proportion to the increase of the organic content in cases of all the three soil types. In general it might be stated that natural-like extraction methods provided significantly efficient and excellent models for estimation of bioavailabilty of pesticides. Pesticides were adsorbed in soils having distinctive pH values to different extent in accordance with their chemical characteristics. Pesticides were not equally accumulated in different segments of the plants exhibiting major role of pesticides’ chemical feature. Differences in accumulated amounts in terms of the examined soil types were observed, while the extent of plant uptake of pesticides has exhibited no correlation with the parameters of the examined soils.
- 143. 143 Volatile chemical cues involved in plant-insect interactions Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides Plant semiochemicals play an important role in the ecological interactions between plants and insects. Plant parasitic insects such as aphids and whiteflies use plant-emitted "odours" to find their host plants. Here it is investigated which plant volatiles are involved in repellence by tomato species of the pest insect Bemisia tabaci (sweet potato whitefly), a well- known vector of many devastating plant viruses. Free choice bioassays of Bemisia tabaci released among cultivated tomato and wild relatives revealed a clear preference for the cultivated tomato and a differential and reduced preference for several wild tomato accessions. Also, it was shown that host-choice behaviour was no different between two genetically different whitefly populations. It was demonstrated that cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv Moneymaker) could be made less attractive by supplying it with the repellent volatile chemicals of the headspace of Solanum pennelli or Solanum habrochaites, indicating that repellence is based on volatile chemicals. The headspace volatile ‘fingerprints’ of repellent and cultivated tomatoes were determined using GC-MS techniques. This dataset in combination with the preference behaviour of the whiteflies resulted in identification of several semiochemicals with possible involvement in either attracting or repelling Bemisia tabaci. To demonstrate causal effects, free-choice bioassays were repeated with susceptible tomato Moneymaker plants supplemented with pure components of repellent headspace on rubber septa. Thus, it was possible to identify two single terpenoids that act as repellents of whitefly in wild tomato accessions. Using high-throughput sequencing of trichome cDNA libraries, the corresponding terpene synthase genes are being identified and cloned. P 045 Petra Bleeker *‡ Paul Diergaarde *‡ Kai Ament ‡ Michel Haring ‡ Michiel de Both * Rob Schuurink ‡ * Keygene N.V., P.O.Box 216 6700 AE Wageningen, the Netherlands. ‡ University of Amsterdam, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, Dept. Plant Physiology, P.O.Box 94062, 1090 GB Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Michiel de Both Keygene N.V. P.O.Box 216 6700 AE Wageningen the Netherlands mdb@keygene.com
- 144. 144 P 046 A. Fammartino T. Schlaich B. Urbaniak W. Gruissem C. Sautter A. Fammartino Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zurich Universitaetsstr. 2, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. fammarta@ethz.ch Increased resistance against smut and bunt diseases by specific anti-fungal virus genes in genetically engineered wheat Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides A viral gene (KP4) encoding for an anti-fungal protein in genetically modified spring wheat varieties (Triticum aestivum) resulted in a 30% reduction in symptoms of Tilletia caries (stinking smut). In a dose-response greenhouse based experiment using isolated fungal strains, in which the infection pressure was varied via the spore concentration, the transgene behaved as a quantitative resistance gene and shifted the S-shaped dose- response curve towards greater resistance. A field test confirmed a 10% increase in fungal resistance against T. caries under high infection pressure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of improved resistance in wheat to fungus achieved using genetic engineering techniques. The same genetically modified wheat lines also showed up to 60% increase in resistance to Ustilago tritici (loose smut) in greenhouse experiments. The transgene was shown to be highly specific for fungi of the order Ustilaginales. Toxicity tests of the transgene using cultures of eukaryotes, including hamster and human cells, showed no significant side effects with respect to bio-safety. Endogenous pathogen-related genes were also activated upon fungal infection in the presence of the kp4 transgene as shown by micro-array analysis and confirmed by real-time PCR. Flavonoid content, as an example of a metabolic profile of putative environmental interaction, showed greater difference between different conventional varieties than between KP4-GM wheat and wild type plants.
- 145. 145 Towards transgenic lines of Picea abies (L.) KARST. showing toxicity to bark beatle species Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides The aim of our research is the utilization of Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis delta-endotoxin to production of the transgenic spruce lines toxic towards bark beatle (Scolytidae). Somatic embryogenesis potentially provides a highly regenerative source of explants for genetic transformation. A plant’s sensitivity to antibiotics is species specific showing either inhibition or promotion of explant growth and regeneration. At the beginning of our experiments we determined the sensitivity of 9 lines of Picea abies embryogenic calli to antibiotics. Two groups of antibiotics were tested: (1) antibiotics commonly used to eliminate Agrobacterium from tissue culture (augmentin, carbenicillin, cefotaxime, ticarcillin and timentin), and (2) antibiotics for the selection of transformed tissue (kanamycin, paromomycin and hygromycin).The effect of antibiotics was evaluated after 3 weeks of culturing on the modified Litvay’s medium. The effect of antibiotics on growth inhibition was very cultivar specific. Among antibiotics of the first group ticarcillin reduced the growth of embryogenic calli in all 9 P. abies lines. Carbenicillin reduced the growth in 7 lines and timentin in 5 lines tested, but in comparison to carbenicillin, timentin was less toxic. The lowest growth reduction was observed in the case of augmentin. The influence of cefotaxim is not completed yet. In regard to second group of antibiotics the most of embryogenic tissue lines proved better tolerance to paromomycin than to kanamycin or hygromycin. The growth of embryogenic calli was strongly inhibited at 50 – 150 mg/l paromomycin, 25 – 100 mg/l kanamycin and 10 – 20 mg/l hygromycin after 3 weeks in culture. This work was supported by NAZV QH7 1290 and AV0Z50510513. P 047 Daniela Pavingerová * Jindřich Bříza * Pavlína Máchová † Helena Cvrčková † * Biology Centre of the ASCR, Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Branišovská 31, 37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic † The Forestry and Game, Management Research Institute, Jíloviště-Strnady 136, 156 04 Praha 5 - Zbraslav, Czech Republic Daniela Pavingerová Biology Centre of the ASCR, Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Branišovská 31, 37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic daniela@umbr.cas.cz
- 146. 146 P 048 Shahid Aslam Siddiqui1 Cecilia Sarmiento2 Mariliis Kiisma2 Satu Koivumäki3 Anne Lemmetty4 Erkki Truve2 Kirsi Lehto1 1 Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland. 2 Department of Gene Technology, Tallinn University of Technology, Akadeemia tee 15, 19086 Tallinn, Estonia. 3 Laboratory of Genetics, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finland. 4 Agricultural Research Centre, FIN-36000 Jokioinen, Finland. Erkki Truve Department of Gene Technology Tallinn University of Technology Akadeemia tee 15 19086 Tallinn, Estonia. erkki.truve@ttu.ee Different viral RNA silencing suppressors have different effects on virus infection in two Nicotiana species Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides We have constructed transgenic N. benthamiana and N. tabacum plants, expressing the following RNA silencing suppressors: P1 of Rice yellow mottle virus, P19 of Tomato bushy stunt virus, P25 of Potato virus X, HcPro of Potato virus Y, AC2 of African cassava mosaic virus and 2b of Cucumber mosaic virus (strain Kin). Expression of several suppressors caused changes in the phenotype of plants, whereas the reaction of two Nicotiana species to the expression of suppressors was different in most cases. In this work we have analyzed how the different suppressors affected the accumulation, systemic spread, symptom severity and possible recovery of Tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV) infection. Potato calico strain of TRSV, a nepovirus that induces very clear initial ringspot symptoms, with obvious later recovery in N. benthamiana, was used to challenge the plants. In N. benthamiana, this virus produces initial infection with severe systemic symptoms, but the infection is strongly reduced within a few weeks as the plants recover from the infection. In this host, the P25 and HcPro silencing suppressors effectively prevented the recovery, allowing continuous accumulation of viral RNA as well as virus-specific siRNAs in the systemically infected leaves. Susceptibility of N. tabacum to the calico strain of TRSV was temperature sensitive. In cool temperatures, up to 25 o C, the plants became systemically infected, but at higher temperatures, the non-transformed N. tabacum plants were resistant to the infection. In these preventive conditions, all silencing suppressor transgenes (except P25, which was expressed at very low level in the used transgenic line) allowed the establishment of both the local and systemic infections. The systemic infections was much weaker in the P19 expressing plants, suggesting that these plants still had active defence against the systemic accumulation of the virus. The virus level remained stable through the course of the infections in the HcPro and AC2 expressing plants and in some cases, in the 2b and P1 expressing plants.
- 147. 147 Multifunctional viral genome-linked protein of Potato virus A is an intrinsically unstructured phosphoprotein Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides Genome-linked protein VPg of Potato virus A (PVA; genus Potyvirus) has essential functions in all critical steps of PVA infection, i.e. replication, and movement. It can be an avirulence determinant in certain resistant hosts in which the potyvirus fails to achieve systemic infection Structural features of the recombinant PVA VPg were investigated with the aim to understand the structure-function relationships. Circular dichroism data revealed a distinct near-UV spectrum indicating that the environment around its aromatic residues is structured but rather flexible, and a far-UV spectrum that contained features typical for intrinsically disordered proteins. Acrylamide fluorescence quenching and 1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonate binding experiments together with an NMR analysis further verified that PVA VPg behaves as a partially folded species having a loose tertiary structure. Regions predicted to be disordered in PVA VPg were cut the fastest by trypsin. Regions predicted to be structured and to contain the most conserved amino acids among potyvirus VPgs were trypsin-resistant. The properties of intrinsically unstructured proteins are often regulated by phosphorylation. In order to be able to analyse post-translational modifications of VPg taking place during PVA infection, an affinity-tag based purification system was developed by inserting a sequence encoding for 6xHis- and hemagglutinin (HA)-tags to the 3’ end of the VPg coding sequence within the infectious cDNA clone of PVA. The engineered virus was infectious and the HisHA- tag encoding sequence remained stable in the PVA genome through the infection process. Purification under denaturing conditions resulted in a protein sample that contained multiple VPg and NIa (VPg and proteinase fusion) forms carrying post-translational modifications that altered their isoelectric points. Non-modified tagged VPg (pI 8) was a minor product in the total leaf protein sample, but when the replication-associated membranes were used as a starting material its relative amount increased. Phosphatase treatment verified that some of the PVA VPg isoforms were modified by multiple phosphorylation events. Further experimentation is required to understand the molecular mechanisms of functional regulation achieved via the flexibility of VPg structure and its phosphorylation. P 049 Kimmo Rantalainen* Anders Hafren* Perttu Permi† Nisse Kalkkinen† Vladimir Uversky‡ A. Keith Dunker‡ Kristiina Mäkinen* * Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology, P.O.Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. † Institute of Biotechnology, P.O.Box 56, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. ‡ Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202, USA Kristiina Mäkinen Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology, P.O.Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland. kristiina.makinen@helsinki.fi
- 148. 148 P 050 Carmen Mansilla Fernando Ponz Fernando Ponz Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM-INIA) INIA, Autopista A6 km 7 28040 Madrid, Spain fponz@inia.es The dotcom mutant series: ORMV-MP transgenic Arabidopsis mutants impaired in their ability to complement the movement of MP-defective oilseed rape mosaic tobamovirus (ORMV) Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides Intercellular movement of macromolecules has become a central issue in many aspects of plant molecular physiology. Numerous processes have been described that involve the movement of protein or nucleic acids at short and long distances within the plant body. These include important developmental transitions, systemic spread of gene silencing, and viral movement among others. Intracellular dynamic macromolecular distribution, symplasmic macromolecular movement through plasmodesmata, and long distance vascular movement reside in the mechanistic bases of this intercellular exchange of biological information. However, information about genes and gene products mediating these processes is scarce and fragmented, largely due to the lack of good genetic approaches to identify and interrogate the plant genes involved. We have developed a genetic approach specifically designed for the identification of Arabidopsis genes involved in cell-to-cell movement of a tobamovirus, used as a representative of macromolecular movement. These mutants DOn´t Transgenically Complement ORMV Movement (dotcom mutants, dcm). In this communication we describe the experimental system developed, and the preliminary characterization of some mutants.
- 149. 149 Tomato genotypes specifically modulate the interactions with beneficial fungi of the genus Trichoderma Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides One of the most promising opportunities for reducing the use of chemically synthesised pesticides in agriculture is to booster the use of biopesticides based on beneficial micro-organisms. Fungi of the genus Trichoderma have been widely studied for their ability to effectively protect plants from pathogen infection. Besides, they also exert beneficial effects on plant growth and development, thus representing a low-input alternative to synthetic fertilizers. Several formulations of Trichoderma-based biopesticides and biofertilizers are already commercially available. However, the complex mechanisms underlying their beneficial activities are not fully understood yet, especially as far as the ability of Trichoderma to induce plant natural defences, which adds to direct competition and mycoparasitism in protecting plants against pathogens. We have recently demonstrated that the molecular and physiological plant responses induced by Trichoderma species are plant genotype-specific. In order to further investigate this aspect, we have studied the effects of either of two Trichoderma species (T. harzianum T22 and T. atroviride P1) on several cultivated and wild tomato genotypes (Solanum lycopersicum and S. habrochaites) in terms of promotion of seed germination and plant development, protection against pathogens and transcriptional modifications of pathogen responsive genes. Plant genotype-dependent changes were recorded for all tested morpho-physiological parameters in response to Trichoderma treatment, indicating for the first time that the interaction between tomato and these beneficial micro-organisms is specific. Identification of key differences between tomato genotypes in their ability to respond to Trichoderma treatment will pave the way to the understanding of the genetic determinants involved in this specific interaction. This will ultimately help in the selection of the most favourable Trichoderma/plant genotype combinations and thus favour the diffusion of Trichoderma-based biopesticides and biofertilizers for sustainable agriculture. P 051 Michelina Ruocco* Luigi De Masi‡ Monica De Palma‡ David Turrà‡¶ Matteo Lorito*¶ Marina Tucci‡ * CNR-Institute for Plant Protection Via Università 133, 80055 Portici (NA), Italy ‡ CNR-Institute of Plant Genetics Via Università 133, 80055 Portici (NA), Italy ¶ Dept. Ar.Bo.Pa.Ve. - Plant Pathology, University of Naples Via Università 100, 80055 Portici (NA), Italy Marina Tucci CNR - Institute of Plant Genetics Via Università 133, 80055 Portici (NA), Italy mtucci@unina.it
- 150. 150 P 052 Nicholas E. Korres1 R. J. Froud-Williams2 Demosthenis Chachalis3 Ourania Pavli1 George N. Skaracis1 1 Agricultural University of Athens Dept. of Agronomy Lab of Plant Breeding & Biometry 75 Iera Odos Str GR-11855, Athens, Greece 2 Reading University School of Biological Sciences A2, Building 2, Earley Gate RG6 6AU, Reading, UK 3 Benaki Phytopathological Institute Weed Science Department, 8S Delta & Ekalis Str GR-14561, Athens, Greece Nicholas E. Korres Agricultural University of Athens Dept. of Agronomy, Lab of Plant Breeding & Biomety, 75 Iera Odos Str, GR-11855, Athens, Greece nickorre@otenet.gr Yielding ability and competitiveness of wheat cultivars against weeds Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides One of the most important, although least investigated, issues in integrated weed management strategies is to grow more competitive crops. Crop’s competitiveness manifests itself either as an ability to tolerate stresses imposed by weed populations, or as a capacity to suppress these populations. Choosing a competitive cultivar, as part of an integrated weed management scheme, might reduce herbicide inputs considerably. This work examines the potential for crop’s competitiveness enhancement, without interfering with traits that confer high yield. Data were obtained from two experiments in split-plot field layout, having as main plots wheat cultivars x crop density combinations and as sub-plots the presence or absence of the naturally occurring weed flora. Cultivars were selected based on their different growth attributes: two traditional tall varieties Maris Huntsman (first experiment) and Maris Widgeon (second experiment) and five modern semi-dwarf varieties Fresco, Riband, Flame, Buster and Hussar, the latter replaced by Rialto in the second experiment. Sowing densities ranged from 50 to 380 plants/m2 . Cultivars were classified according to their tolerance, as estimated by comparing yield losses in the presence of weeds relative to weed free conditions Although grain yield losses did not differ significantly among the cultivars in either experiment, there was a clear trend indicating that Fresco, Rialto and Flame suffered greatest when facing weed competition, whereas under weed free conditions all cultivars performed similarly. On the contrary, Buster suffered less grain yield loss in the presence of weeds. Similar results were observed for Riband and M. Huntsman. Furthermore, the lack of correspondence between weed dry matter in a crop: weed mixture and grain yield of the same cultivar in weed free condition suggests that competitive ability does not necessarily coincide with the high yielding properties of a wheat cultivar. For example, Fresco showed the least weed dry matter reduction compared to other cultivars, producing at the same time an appreciable yield under weed free conditions. These observations indicate that, when increased competitive ability is a desirable attribute, cultivar selection should also be based their productiveness under weed stress conditions.
- 151. 151 Durable leaf rust resistance in durum wheat is controlled by a major QTL in the distal region of chromosome arm 7BL Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing pesticides The genetic basis of leaf rust (Puccinia triticina Eriks.) resistance carried by the durum wheat cultivars Creso and its derivative Colosseo was studied using a recombinant inbred population of 176 lines (RILs) from the cross Colosseo x Lloyd, a set of 62 advanced lines from multiple crosses and a collection of 164 Mediterranean durum wheat accessions. The genetic materials were tested under field conditions and artificial rust inoculation. The RIL population was tested in 2006. The two accession panels were evaluated in 2006 and 2007. The percentage of infected leaf area was evaluated through the disease developmental cycle and the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) was obtained for each field trial. A major QTL (QLr.ubo-7B.2) for leaf rust resistance was identified on the distal region of chr. 7BL with the favourable allele inherited from Colosseo. The QTL showed R2 equal to 72.9% and LOD peak of 44.5 for AUDPC. The presence of this major QTL was validated by a linkage disequilibrium-based test using the two accession panels. The association results confirmed that the QTL is most probably located on the small support interval flanked by SSR markers Xbarc340.2 and Xgwm344.2, with the corresponding AUDPC R2 values ranging from ca. 10 to ca. 35% across the two panels and years. The SSR-based long-range haplotype homogeneous to cv. Creso is widespread in the cultivated durums adapted to the Mediterranean region and is particularly frequent among the elite accessions bred in Italy and at the ICARDA durum germplasm program. QLr.ubo-7B.2 maps in a gene-dense region (7BL10-0.78-1.00) known to carry several genes/QTLs in wheat and barley for resistance to rusts and other major cereal fungal diseases. Colinearity has been reported between the distal portion of rice 6L and the distal ends of wheat group 7 chromosomes. Therefore, genes on rice 6L lying in the region between Xbarc340.2 and Xgwm344.2 were used in BLASTn searches to identify wheat ESTs mapped on 7BL10-0.78-1.00, thus corresponding to those rice genes. The wheat ESTs identifying single-copy genes in the rice chromosome 6 genomic sequence in reciprocal BLAST searches were selected to develop PCR markers in order to help the fine mapping of QLr.ubo-7B.2. Rice annotations were exploited to identify exon/intron boundaries, so PCR primers could be designed from exons to amplify predicted wheat genomic fragments spanning intronic regions, assumed to have the highest number of sequence polymorphisms. Chinese Spring wheat nulli-tetrasomic (CS-NT) chromosome substitution lines were used to design 7B-specific primers,. Of 19 primer pairs, 7 detected polymorphisms between cv. Langdon and the dicoccoides accession Israel A, while two identified monomorphic fragments that will be used as probes in RFLP analysis. P 053 Maccaferri M Mantovani P Giuliani S Castelletti S Sanguineti MC Demontis A Massi A, Corneti S Stefanelli S Tuberosa R Roberto Tuberosa Dept. Agroenvironmental Sciences & Technology, Viale Fanin 44, 40127 Bologna, Italy roberto.tuberosa@unibo.it
- 152. 152 P 054 Kulkarni Manoj* Bert Schneider* Eran Raveh† Noemi Tel-Zur* *A. Katz Department of Dryland Biotechnologies, J. Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel. †Citriculture, Gilat Research Center, Mobile Post Negev 85280, Israel Kulkarni Manoj J. Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben- Gurion University of Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel. manoj@bgu.ac.il A predictive model for drought tolerance selection using leaf anatomical characteristics and physiological parameters in Ziziphus mauritiana Lam Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input The aim of this study was to determine if selected leaf anatomical characteristics are associated with drought tolerance in Ziziphus mauritiana Lam. Six Z. mauritiana cultivars, Seb, Gola, Umran, Keitly, Q-29 and B-5/4, grown under field conditions in Israel's Negev desert were studied. Anatomical characteristics were investigated using light microscopy and histological techniques while drought tolerance was investigated by monitoring plant response (leaf transpiration, diffusive resistance, and chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm)) to water stress in two field experiments. Greater epidermis-, mesophyll-widths and xylem diameters and densities were associated with increased drought tolerance. Proportional differences between initial and final physiological parameters, before and after drought were significantly greater in Keitly, Umran, Gola and B-5/4 as compared to Seb and Q-29, indicating that the former cultivars are more sensitive to drought conditions. A predictive model for the relation between anatomical indicators and drought tolerance indicators based on physiological responses was proposed. Significant positive linear relations were determined with regression coefficients: r= 1.5, 1.4 and correlation coefficients: R2 =0.75, 0.88 for data collected at Sede Boqer and Beer Sheva respectively. The data presented may provide the basis for developing improved selection tools for drought tolerance in Z. mauritiana breeding programs.
- 153. 153 ABA affects root hydraulic conductance and leaf growth via aquaporin content Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input The respective effects of ABA and drought on leaf growth and root hydraulic conductivity (Lpr) are controversial. While it is accepted that ABA increases the expression of plasma membrane aquaporin (PIP) genes, it is not clear if it has a long-lasting effect on Lpr and to what extent ABA-related changes in leaf growth rate are due to differences in Lpr. We addressed these questions with a series of transformant maize lines deregulated in the expression of the VP14 gene encoding NCED, a key enzyme of ABA synthesis. One sense (S) and three antisense (AS) lines with contrasting ABA biosynthesis capacities were analysed in moderate water deficit. As expected, increased ABA synthesis caused stomatal closure and increased leaf water potential. The protein contents of 3 PIP aquaporins were strongly increased in roots and leaves in S plants, and decreased in AS plants. This resulted in large differences in Lpr measured on excised root systems, with 4-fold values in S compared with AS plants, and an intermediate Lpr in WT. The hydraulic conductance of transpiring whole plants was also largely affected. The recoveries of leaf elongation rate and leaf water potential after rewatering were quicker in S and slower in AS plants than in WT. A model of water transfer accounted for these changes and suggested a important role for both root and leaf hydraulic conductances in the recovery rates. Overall, these results suggest that ABA has long-lasting effects on both plant hydraulic and stomatal conductances, which contribute to maintain a favourable plant water status. P 055 Boris Parent* Charles Hachez‡ Elise Redondo† François Chaumont‡ François Tardieu* * Laboratoire d’ecophysiologie des plantes sous stress environnementaux, INRA- SUPAGRO, 2, place Viala 34060 Montpellier cedex 1, France ‡ Physiological Biochemistry, Université Catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium †Biogemma,Campus des Cézeaux, 63170 Aubieres, France Boris Parent Laboratoire d’ecophysiologie des plantes sous stress environnementaux, INRA- SUPAGRO, 2, place Viala 34060 Montpellier cedex 1, France parentb@supagro.inra.fr
- 154. 154 P 056 Arik Honig* Oran Erster* Hanan Stein* Noam Reznik* Eddy Belausov‡ Einat Sadot‡ Aviah Zilberstein* * Department of Plant Sciences, Tel-Aviv Univeristy, Tel-Aviv, 69978, Israel. ‡ Department of Ornamental Horticulture, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel. Arik Honig Department of Plant Sciences, Tel-Aviv Univeristy, Tel-Aviv, 69978, Israel. honigari@post.tau.ac.il Over-expression of the HyPRP AtCWLP forms a cell wall-plasma membrane-cytosol continuum that improves drought tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis and potato plants Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input HyPRPs (Hybrid Proline-Rich Proteins) are a group of more than 500 plant proteins which contain a large N-terminal hydrophilic proline rich domain (PRD) followed by a hydrophobic 8CM domain predicted to be localized to the plasma-membrane. The Arabidopsis thaliana hybrid proline-rich Cell Wall Linker Protein (AtCWLP), has been chosen as a model protein for estimating the role of proline rich membrane proteins in stress tolerance and the need for available free proline for their accumulation. Bioinformatical analysis and C-terminal GFP translational fusion confirmed the localization of CWLP in the plamsa- membrane with a cytoplasmic protruding C-terminal end and an external proline rich N-terminal domain. Dehydration experiments showed that CWLP over-expressing (CWLP-OE) Arabidopsis and Potato (Solanum tuberosum) plants are more tolerant to water shortage than WT plants. Moreover, higher levels of CWLP were assembled in the PM of Arabidopsis cells when proline accumulation was induced during stress imposition. Plasmolysis experiments with detached leaves followed by Confocal LSM observations revealed that while leaf cells of the CWLP-OE plants could maintain normal cytoskeleton structure and did not show protoplast shrinkage (plasmolysis) during exposure to 30% glycerol or 0.6 M sorbitol, the WT cells revealed protoplast contraction and destruction of microtubule structure. However, plants that overexpressed the CWLP lacking the cytoplasmic-protruding domain or the cell wall anchoring proline-rich-part were sensitive to plasmolysis, suggesting a role of those domains in delaying plasmolysis. Taken together our results suggest that CWLP molecules form a cell wall- plasma membrane-cytosol continuum required for tolerance to cellular water loss and highlight the novel role of HyPRPs in plant stress withstanding.
- 155. 155 Plant growth control by water deficit: which process(es) to lead the game? Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input The nature of plant growth limitation by environmental stresses such as water deficit is a central question for physiologists and breeders because this knowledge could help to target key processes for breeding programs and help designing plants able to maintain growth under stressful conditions. In order to grow, plant cells must loosen their walls, absorb water, reduce and process enough C and minerals to match the plant demand. Therefore, plant cell growth can be limited by cell wall rheological properties, cell or tissue hydraulics or by metabolism. In addition, cell division can be an important process to consider as cell number, together with cell size, contributes to the whole organ size. Over the past few years, our group has questioned the importance of these limitations using combinations of ecophysiological tools, spatio-temporal growth analysis and modelling in ranges of genotypes (including natural variants and mutants). Among the outcomes of these studies, I will show that (i) hydraulic limitation plays a great role on organ growth on the short term, (ii) distinct members of the cell wall loosening expansins family are downstream, unspecific targets of a range of converging developmental, genetic, and environmental cues (iii) metabolism and growth are tightly connected, possibly through a remote control of leaf expansion by starch metabolism and (iv) leaf cell size is more a consequence of growth control at higher levels of organization than vice-versa. Selected papers: Lebaudy et al. (2008) Plant adaptation to fluctuating environment and biomass production are strongly dependent on guard cell potassium channels. PNAS 105(13):5271-5276 Granier et al. (2007) Cell cycle and environmental stresses In:"Cell cycle control and plant development". Blackwell Publishing, Dirk Inzé ed., Annual Plant Reviews 32:335-355 Muller et al. (2007) Association of specific expansins with longitudinal and lateral expansion in maize leaves is maintained under environmental, genetic and developmental sources of variation Plant Physiol. 143(1):278-290 Aguirrezábal et al. (2006) Plasticity to soil water deficit in Arabidopsis thaliana: dissection of leaf development into underlying growth dynamic and cellular variables reveals invisible phenotypes. Plant Cell Environ. 29(12):2216-2227 Voisin et al., (2006) Are ABA ethylene or their interaction involved in the response of leaf growth to soil water deficit? An analysis using naturally occurring variation or genetic transformation of ABA production in maize Plant Cell Environ. 29(9):1829-1840 Bouchabké et al. (2006) Leaf growth and turgor in growing cells of maize (Zea mays L.) respond to evaporative demand under moderate irrigation but not in water-saturated soil Plant Cell Environ. 29(6):1138-1148 P 057 Christine Granier Thierry Simonneau Denis Vile Christina Ehlert Irène Hummel Sébatien Tisne Marie Bouteillé Catherine Massonnet Juliette Fabre Marjorie Pervent Florent Pantin Gaelle Rolland Myriam Dauzat Bertrand Muller Bertrand Muller Laboratoire d’écophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux (LEPSE), Institut de Biologie Intégrative des Plantes (IBIP), INRA 2 place Viala F-34060 Montpellier, France muller@supagro.inra.fr
- 156. 156 P 058 Maryse Laloi Julien Jeauffre Andrée Bourbouloux Benoît Porcheron Nathalie Pourtau Jean Philippe Biolley Rossitza Atanassova Rémi Lemoine Rémi Lemoine Physiologie Moléculaire du Transport des Sucres FRE CNRS 3091 Université de Poitiers Bâtiment Botanique 40 Avenue du Recteur Pineau 86022 Poitiers Cedex France Remi.Lemoine@univ-poitiers.fr Differential expression of sugar transporters in Arabidopsis thaliana during water stress Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input When plants are subjected to water shortage, source/sink relations between organs are altered and the maintenance of some organs is favoured over that of others, leading to a successful adaptation to drought The maintenance of sink organs rely primarily on the import of sugars (mostly sucrose) by the phloem. As a first step towards understanding the changes in sugar fluxes during water stress, we are studying the expression of selected genes coding for sugar transporters (sucrose, hexose and polyol transporters) in Arabidopsis. For this purpose specific macroarrays were produced and hybridized with RNA from different organs (shoot, root, floral stem) under normal and stress conditions. Particular attention was devoted to the way stress was applied and 2 different protocols were compared : plants were either cultivated on soil or hydroponically. Experiments will also be extended to different ecotypes and selected mutant lines of Arabidopsis. The most responsive genes will be selected for further analysis. In a second step, the results obtained will be compared with physiological data (plant size, biomass, sugar content…) to analyse the role of sugar transporters in drought adaptation.
- 157. 157 Growth-dependent expression of aquaporin genes in developing barley (Hordeum Vulgare) Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input Water and mineral uptake is essential for the physiology of the plant cell, especially during growth. However it is not known along which pathways water moves within growing tissues. The membrane intrinsic proteins (MIP) or aquaporins are likely to play a key role, allowing the passage of water or small-molecular weight solutes through membranes. Previously, microarray expression studies have been carried out on the developing barley leaf, and several aquaporins contigs showed a differential expression between growing and non-growing and between transpiring and non-transpiring leaf regions. The aim of the project is to characterize further some of these candidate aquaporins in terms of functionality (water channel function), organ-and tissue-site of expression and regulation. Data from expression analyses and test of functionality (through expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes) will be shown. P 059 Matthieu Besse School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. bessematthieu@hotmail.fr
- 158. 158 P 060 Aleksandra Wasilewska Nathlie Leonhardt Marta Riera Christiane Valon Jérôme Giraudat Sylvain Merlot Jeffrey Leung Aleksandra Wasilewska Institut des Sciences du Vegetal (ISV) CNRS, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif sur Yvette France Aleksandra.Wasilewska@isv.cnrs- gif.fr OPEN STOMATA 3, an ABC transporter implicated in ABA signalling, drought and light response Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input Mutants sensitive to progressive water deficit are characterized by excessive transpiration due to the failure of stomatal closure and can therefore be detected as cold plants by remote infrared imaging (Merlot et al., 2002). Among the signalling mutants, three are collectively named open stomata (ost). The corresponding OST1 and OST2 genes encode an ABA-activated kinase and a P-type H+ -ATPase, respectively (Mustilli et al., 2002; Merlot et al., 2007). The current work deals with OST3 which encodes an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter. There are over 120 members of the ABC protein in the superfamily of Arabidopsis thaliana. Most of them are membrane-bound proteins that transport a diverse range of substances across the phospholipid bilayer. Characterisation of the mutant phenotype confirmed that ost3 transpires excessively. We have also shown that the ost3 mutations reduce seed dormancy but seed sensitivity to exogenous ABA seems unaffected. The guard cells of ost3 are impaired in responses to ABA and light, but are normal with respect to low level of CO2 which stimulates stomatal opening. OST3 is expressed mainly in leaves, particularly in guard cells, but it is low in root tissues. Transgenic expression of the OST3 protein fused to GFP in the ost3 mutant can rescue the phenotype and moreover, the fusion protein seems targeted exclusively to the plasma membrane suggesting that it has a role in intercellular transport required for ABA signal perception. Using the yeast two-hybrid system, we found that OST3 interacts with the OST2 P-type H+ -ATPase and the OST1 protein kinase. The last observation is also consistent with the fact that OST3 can be phosphorylated by OST1 in vitro. Therefore we suggest that the trio of proteins identified by our genetic screen may function in the same signalling complex in mediating stomatal response.
- 159. 159 Establishing a system for monitoring aquaporin expression under drought in strawberry (Fragaria spp) Session: Preserving our future by reducing the inputs in agriculture: Reducing water input The strawberry genus, Fragaria, contains over 20 species that are present throughout the temperate regions of the world, of which the cultivated strawberry is a highly economically important soft fruit species. Increased competition between sectors for dwindling water resources means that in future only limited irrigation will be available for commercial production of strawberry. Hence it is increasingly important to exploit any tolerance of water deficits that exists within the genus. Aquaporins are transmembrane proteins of the Major Intrinsic Protein (MIP) family that control the transport of water molecules across cell membranes and there is strong evidence that aquaporins play key roles in plant water relations. Aquaporin isoforms expressed in roots are of particular interest for studying water uptake. Six partial root cDNA sequences and four genomic DNA sequences of putative Fragaria aquaporins of the plasmamembrane intrinsic protein (PIP) subfamily have been obtained using primers designed from heterologous sequences retrieved from the EMBL database. A system was developed that provides normal plant growth and root development similar to that in soil, and which allows for root sampling without washing the root tissue. Deficit irrigation (to replace approx 66% of evapotranspiration) was applied to F. vesca plants from flowering through to fruit production. Stomatal conductance, whole plant transpiration, and leaf water potential were reduced in the plants under deficit irrigation compared to control plants throughout the treatment, and leaf development was also limited by deficit irrigation. Plants were harvested at intervals after imposing the drought treatment and expression analysis was conducted on the root tissue to determine the influence of water deficit on expression of selected putative aquaporins. Patterns of expression are discussed. P 061 Nada Šurbanovski*† Olga M. Grant* Hanma Zhang† *Department of Crop Physiology, East Malling Research, East Malling, ME19 6BJ, Kent, UK † Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK Nada Šurbanovski East Malling Research, East Malling, ME19 6BJ, Kent, UK and the University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK nada.surbanovski@emr.ac.uk
- 160. 160 P 062 Jaroslav Matoušek*† Josef Škopek* Tomáš Kocábek* Zoltán Fussy† Lidmila Orctová* Josef Patzak*‡ *Biology Centre CAS v.v.i. IPMB, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice 370 05, Czech Republic. †Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic ‡Hop Research Institute GmbH, Kadaňská 2525, 43846 Žatec, Czech Republic Jaroslav Matoušek Biology Centre CAS v.v.i. Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice 370 05, Czech Republic. jmat@umbr.cas.cz Cloning and functional analyses of hop transcription factors (TFs) to develop TF biotechnology of H. lupulus Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) is plant cultivated for commercial use in brewing industry and known in traditional medicine since medieval times. Glandular trichomes (lupulin glands) developing in hop female inflorescences (cones) contain a specific part of hop metabolome including α and β bitter acids valuable for the brewing process and other compounds like prenylated chalcones (e.g. xanthohumol) that are of particular recent interest in view of their medicinal and especially anticancerogenic properties (e.g. Stevens, J.F. and Page, J.E. -Phytochemistry 65:1317, 2004). The composition and levels of valuable secondary metabolites in hop are strongly developmentally regulated. In our previous work we described oligofamily of genes encoding for so-called “true” hop chalcone synthases CHS_H1 (EC 2.3.1.74) (Matoušek, J. e.a. -Plant Sci. 162:1007, 2002; Matoušek, J. e.a. - J. Agric. Food Chem. 54:7606, 2006) that are the key enzymes in hop, showing strong expression in maturating hop cones and having capability of catalyzing both, chalcones as precursors of xanthohumol, and bitter acids. In order to solve the principal question how chs_H1 genes are regulated, we analyzed chs_H1 promoter elements and cloned the first hop transcription factors (TFs). According to chs_H1 sequence, promoter binding motifs include Myb-like boxes, H-box P- and G-boxes. Initially, we cloned the first R2R3Myb factors from cDNA library prepared from glandular tissue- enriched hop cones and showed their specific expression in hop and pleiotropic action on metabolome and plant morphogenesis in heterologous transgenotes (Matoušek, J. e.a. - J. Agric. Food Chem. 53:4793, 2005; Matoušek, J. e.a - J. Agric. Food Chem. 55:7767, 2007). Recently we isolated first authentic bZIP transcription factor HlbZIP1 (clone 2327) from the hop library. This TF has predicted molecular mass of 34.2 kDa and pI 8.51. A combinatorial action of HlbZIP1 and other cloned hop TFs was analyzed in P. hybrida and N. benthamiana model systems. TF HlbZIP1 was found to be strong activator of chs_H1 promoter fused to GUS reference gene in infiltrated N. benthamiana leaves and modulator of HlMyb1 and HlMyb3 TFs from hop. Simultaneously, both hop R2R3 Myb TFs were proven to be involved in in vivo interaction with chs_H1 promoter in these systems. Together with PAP1 TF from A. thaliana that was shown previously (Matoušek, J. e.a. - J. Agric. Food Chem. 54: 7606, 2006) to stimulate chs_H1, cloned hop TFs will form the basis of TF biotechnology to modulate and modify hop metabolome. This work is supported by GAČR 521/08/0740 and NAZV QH81052.
- 161. 161 Leaf and root growth dynamics: How can plants reach their full growth potential in a dynamically fluctuating environment? Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Plant growth occurs in an ever-changing environment. Prominent changes are the daily rhythms of atmospheric temperature and light intensity, to which leaves are exposed. Leaves of dicot plants cope with these rhythms by using the endogenous clock to adjust growth to predominant environmental fluctuations. In some species, such as Arabidopsis, the leaf growth rhythm shows a maximum at dawn, while in other species such as poplar, maximal growth happens at dusk. Both types of growth patterns ensure that maximal growth occurs, when water loss of the growing tissue due to transpiration is low and carbon availability is high. In leaves of monocot plants and roots, where the growing tissue is not subject to water loss via transpiration, growth is synchronized with the environment in a different way. There, growth is almost directly correlated with temperature of the growing tissue, leading to maximal growth at noon for monocot leaves and to an often constant diel growth pattern in roots. Leaves and roots live in completely different habitats, but are parts of the same organism. Thus, sudden alterations of environmental parameters in the root or the leaf habitat can affect growth dynamics of both organs strongly and unexpectedly. Elucidation of the mechanisms, how different plants manage to reach their full growth potential and optimal resource use efficiencies in a fluctuating environment, will hence require joint analysis of gene x environment and root x leaf interactions. P 063 Achim Walter Shizue Matsubara Anika M. Wiese-Klinkenberg Kerstin A. Nagel Grégoire M. Hummel Maja M. Christ Ulrich Schurr Achim Walter Institut für Chemie und Dynamik der Geosphäre (ICG) ICG-3: Phytosphäre Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH 52425 Jülich, Germany a.walter@fz-juelich.de
- 162. 162 P 064 F. Merchan*, A. Maizel*, E. Marin†, A. Herz†, P. Laporte*, B. Ben Amor*, S. Wirth*, C. Hartmann*, L. Nussaume† M. Crespi* *Institut des Sciences du Végétal, 1 Av. de la Terrasse, F-91198 Gif- sur-Yvette, France †LBDP CEA Cadarache, F-13108 St Paul Lez Durance, France Martin Crespi Institut des Sciences du Végétal, 1 Av. de la Terrasse, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France crespi@isv.cnrs-gif.fr Impact of long and small non-protein coding RNAs in root developmental plasticity Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Long non-protein coding RNAs (npcRNA) represent an emerging class of riboregulators, which act either directly in this long form or are processed to shorter miRNA and siRNA. Plant and animals use small RNAs (microRNAs and siRNAs) as guide for post-transcriptional and epigenetic regulation. In plants, miRNAs and trans-acting siRNA (tasiRNA) result from different biogenesis pathways but both interact with target transcripts to direct their cleavage. Genome-wide bioinformatic analysis of full-length cDNA databases identified 76 Arabidopsis npcRNAs. Thirteen npcRNAs were antisense to protein-coding mRNAs, suggesting cis-regulatory roles. Numerous 24-nt siRNA matched to five different npcRNAs, suggesting that these npcRNAs are precursors of this type of siRNA. Abiotic stress altered the accumulation of 22 npcRNAs among the 76, a fraction significantly higher than that observed for the RNA binding protein-coding fraction of the transcriptome. One npcRNA expressed in root tissues corresponded to TAS3a, a tasiRNA precursor target of miR390. Using reporter constructs for TAS3a and miR390 loci, as well as analysis of the accumulation of their derived RNAs, we have characterized the expression pattern of the TAS3 pathway and its interaction with ARF3 targets during root development. Overexpression of another npcRNA, antisense to a coding transcript, identified a regulator of root growth during salt stress. Hence, long npcRNAs and small RNAs, sensitive components of the transcriptome, may control expression patterns of regulatory genes and contribute to modify root development and architecture in the soil environment.
- 163. 163 Unravelling transcriptional regulatory networks that control seed maturation in Arabidopsis Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology In Arabidopsis seed, the accumulation of both, storage compounds (i.e. oil and proteins) or secondary metabolites (e.g. flavonoids) are tightly regulated at the transcriptional level providing interesting models for the analysis of regulatory networks. In seed, flavonoid biosynthesis (e.g. flavonols or proanthocyanidins/PA) is controlled through the specific expression of several structural genes. For instance, the BANYULS (BAN) is specifically expressed in PA-accumulating cells of the seed coat. We have previously shown that TT2 (MYB), TT8 (bHLH), and TTG1 (WDR) form a ternary complex that directly controls the expression of some of these structural genes, including BAN. TT16 (a MADS box protein) has been shown to be essential for the correct differentiation of PA-accumulating endothelial cells, at least through the regulation of TT2 expression. Interestingly, TT2-TT8-TTG1 also regulates the expression of TT8 in a self-activated feedback loop. In addition, TT8 and TTG1 can interact with other regulators including a small MYB protein (MYBL2) modulating the activity of this complex. Taken together, the relationships between these different regulators provide an interesting model of transcriptional fine-tuned regulation. Although the main metabolic pathways necessary for the accumulation of oil, starch, or protein during seed maturation are well characterized, the overall regulation and partitioning between these pathways remain unclear. LEAFY COTYLEDON genes, namely LEC1, LEC2, and FUSCA3 (FUS3) encode key transcriptional regulators of seed maturation, together with ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 (ABI3). Interestingly, LEC2, FUS3, and ABI3 are structurally related proteins sharing a “B3” DNA-binding domain. These proteins display some partially redundant functions involving other factors such as LEC1, PICKLE, or ABI5. During the recent years, genetic and molecular studies have shed new light on the structure and robustness of this regulatory network. Interestingly, we have recently shown that WRINKLED1 (WRI1, encoding a transcription factor of the AP2 family) is a target of LEC2 and is necessary for the regulatory action of LEC2 towards fatty acid metabolism. P 065 Loïc Lepiniec Sébastien Baud Nathalie Berger Michel Caboche Isabelle Debeaujon Christian Dubos Bertrand Dubreuc Erwana Harscoet Martine Miquel Christine Rochat Jean-Marc Routaboul David Viterbo INRA, IJPB, AgroParisTech Seed Biology, Route de Saint-Cyr 78 026, Versailles, France. Loïc Lepiniec INRA, Route de Saint-Cyr, 78026 Versailles, France Lepiniec@versailles.inra.fr
- 164. 164 P 066 Volodymyr Radchuk Nese Sreenivasulu Twan Rutten Ulrich Wobus Ljudmilla Borisjuk Volodymyr Radchuk Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung (IPK) Corrensstraße 3 D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany radchukv@ipk.gatersleben.de New barley species-specific genes are required for pollen and tapetal development Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Traits mediating sexual reproduction often undergo rapid evolution and are encoded by a unique set of genes also expressed during flower and seed development in plants. We described the new jekyll gene in barley possessing unique primary sequence but showing similar genomic organization and protein secondary structure with glycine-rich proteins, known to be involved in sexual reproduction in Arabidopsis. Earlier we studied the function of the JEKYLL during barley seed development and established its pivotal role in the nutrient supply to filial endosperm by cell death in maternal tissues (Radchuk et al., Plant Cell; 2006). Here we show that jekyll is also expressed in the developing gynoecium and anthers, which plays an important role in sexual plant reproduction. In situ hybridization and GFP expression under the jekyll promoter revealed the jekyll localization only in those tapetal cells of anthers which surround the developing pollen grains. Transgenic plants with RNAi-mediated down regulation of jekyll gene expression showed altered pollen formation. We supposed that the jekyll gene is critical for viable pollen formation being involved in nutrient supply to the developing pollen, similarly to its already established function in the developing seeds. Moreover, the transgenic plants were characterized by insufficient release of pollen from the anthers. The role of jekyll in tapetum degeneration and in establishment of the outer coat wall (an exine) of a pollen grain will be discussed. Plants, pollinated with transgenic pollen, produced reduced seed set indicating involvement of jekyll gene in the pollination and subsequently contributing to the fertilization event. It can be due to the following reasons: insufficient accumulation of storage compounds in the transgenic pollen further leading to the pure pollen germination and growth, ineffective pollen release from the anthers, or due to insufficient pollen/stigma recognition because of the affected structure of exine. All these results underlie the crucial role of the jekyll gene in sexual plant reproduction. Using macro- array analysis of transgenic anthers and nucellar projection tissue from developing grains of barley we have identified regulators connected with altered nutrient supply and cell death. Searching the EST collections, we further found two genes in barley and two genes in wheat sharing similarity with JEKYLL. All these genes are expressed exclusively during plant reproduction cycle indicating their involvement in the process. Identification of genes that control pollen development and species-specific pollen recognition has agricultural applications. The ability to control gene flow between species would facilitate the creation of new hybrids and the containment of genetically modified plants.
- 165. 165 Regulation of AP1 transcription by the floral integrators LFY and FT Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology The transition between the vegetative phase to the reproductive phase in Arabidopsis is controlled by factors which integrate different environmental signals and have therefore been called floral pathway integrators: LEAFY, FT and SOC1 (Simpson and Dean, 2002). Two of these integrators, FT and LFY have been shown to be able to activate the transcription of the floral marker gene APETALA1 (AP1), whose expression establishes the floral fate in a non-reversible manner in the newly formed meristems. The biochemical basis for this activation is not known. Our aim is to understand how LFY regulates the activation of AP1 and how the different environmental cues are integrated at the level of its promoter. To reach our goal we have combined biochemical (emsa and florescence anisotropy) with genetic approaches (promoter-GUS fusions). The work presented provides insights in the biochemical interaction of LFY with different regulatory elements present in AP1 regulatory regions (Bush et al., 1999; Parcy et al., 1998). Several potential LFY binding sites are present in AP1 promoter. Our studies in vitro and in plants show that LFY activates AP1 mainly through a single high affinity site. Finally, the possible synergy between LFY and FT is analyzed as both transcription factors are capable of activating AP1 transcription independently. This study of the integration of different environmental signals at the level of the AP1 promoter provides more details into the tightly regulated and fine-tuned network of interactions controlling phase change in Arabidopsis. References • G.G. Simpson and C. Dean. (2002). Arabidopsis, the Rosetta stone of flowering time. Science 296, 285-289. • M.A. Busch, K. Bomblies and D. Weigel. (1999) Science 285, 585-587. • F. Parcy, O. Nilsson, M.A. Busch, I. Lee and D. Weigel. (1998) Nature 395, 561- 566. P 067 Reyes Benlloch (†,*) Cécile Hames † Edwige Moyroud † François Parcy † Ove Nilsson * † Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale, UMR-5168 CNRS/INRA/Université Joseph Fourier/CEA Grenoble, 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble cedex 9, France. * Umeå Plant Science Centre. Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology. Swedish University of Agricultural Science. SE-90187 Umea, Sweden Reyes Benlloch Postdoctoral researcher in the frame of an UPSC-INRA collaboration involving the following labs: † Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale, UMR-5168 CNRS/INRA/Université Joseph Fourier/CEA Grenoble, 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble cedex 9, France. * Umeå Plant Science Centre. Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology. Swedish University of Agricultural Science. SE-90187 Umea, Sweden (Present address). Reyes.Benlloch@genfys.slu.se
- 166. 166 P 068 Alexander Brutus Simone Ferrari Fedra Francocci Roberta Galletti Lorenzo Mariotti Gianni Salvi Daniel Savatin Francesca Sicilia Francesco Spinelli Felice Cervone Giulia De Lorenzo Giulia De Lorenzo Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università di Roma “Sapienza” , Piazzale A. Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy giulia.delorenzo@uniroma1.it Dissection of oligogalaturonide-mediated signalling: role in defence and development Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology The structure and integrity of pectin in the cell wall is critical for both defence and development. Upon tissue injury or pathogen infection, homogalacturonan (HGA), the main component of pectin, is broken down into lower size fragments (oligogalacturonides: OGs). OGs activate the plant innate immune response, acting as endogenous elicitors and alerting the cells of a breach in tissue integrity. OGs are therefore signals derived from an altered-self (Host-Associated Molecular Patterns or HAMPs) and microarray analysis show that they induce responses largely overlapping the responses activated by pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). The formation of OGs may be favoured by the interaction of fungal endo- polygalacturonases with plant cell wall leucine-rich-repeat proteins (PGIPs: PolyGalacturonase-Inhibiting Proteins). Despite their simple primary structure, OGs have a wide range of effects including the regulation of plant growth and development. Their activity as regulators of growth and development is related to their antagonism with the action of auxin. In Arabidopsis, OGs increase resistance to the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea independently of jasmonate-, salicylic acid- and ethylene-mediated signalling. OG-induced resistance to fungal infection is suppressed by exogenous auxin. By using both biochemical and genetic methods we are dissecting the OG perception/transduction pathway to elucidate the molecular basis of the OG/auxin antagonism and its significance in defence and development.
- 167. 167 Increased sensitivity and decreased cost using DeepSAGE – sequence tag based transcriptomics Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology DeepSAGE transcriptomics using DNA sequencing-by-synthesis of sequence tags provides high sensitivity and cost-effective gene expression profiling. We have developed protocols for greatly simplified sample preparation with multiplexing capacity for both 454 and Solexa (Illumina). Using the Solexa version we have prepared and sequenced tags from 2.5 µg of total RNA from 27 different tissue samples (in triplicates) from Lotus japonicus roots in symbiosis with Rhizobium in only two sequence runs. The resulting dataset contains more than 60 mio high quality sequence tags and is equivalent to the sensitivity of approximately 400 DNA microarray experiments. Preliminary analysis of the dataset implies that transcriptome analysis using tag-based sequencing platforms might be able to provide complete transcriptomics with the ability to detect even the lowest abundance transcripts. P 069 Annabeth Høgh Jeppe Emmersen Kåre Lehmann Nielsen Kåre Lehmann Nielsen Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Aalborg University, Sohngaardsholmsvej 49 DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark kln@bio.aau.dk
- 168. 168 P 070 Laila Moubayidin1 Riccardo Di Mambro1 Raffaele Dello Ioio1 Paolo Costantino1 Sabrina Sabatini1 1 Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Model Systems, Università La Sapienza, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy Laila Moubayidin Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Model Systems, Università La Sapienza, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy lailamoubayidin@gmail.com Cytokinins-dependent molecular mechanisms necessary for the stem cell niche mainteinance of Arabidopsis thaliana root meristem Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology In plants postembryonic development occurs from localized regions called meristems. In the Arabidopsis root meristem, stem cells for all root tissue types surround a small group of organizing cells known as the quiescent centre (QC). Together they form a stem cell niche (STN) whose position and maintenance depend on the combinatorial action of the PLETHORA (PLT1, 2), SCARECROW (SCR), and SHORTROOT (SHR) genes. Root meristem size and activity depend on the coordinate action of cell division in the STN and in the meristem and cell differentiation at the meristem transition zone (TZ). We recently demonstrated that cytokinins are crucial signalling molecules determining meristem activity by controlling cell differentiation at the (TZ). Here we provide preliminary data on the molecular mechanisms trough which the cytokinin mediated cell differentiation input is coordinated with genes necessary for the STN maintenance and position.
- 169. 169 The effect of culture media (in vitro) on the acclimatization of micropropagated pineapple (Ananas comosus) Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology It is acknowledged that one of the most difficult and important stages of micropropagation for any plant is the acclimatization phase, i.e. the transfer from the in vitro environment to the glasshouse. This stressful transition can only be overcome by the plant through developing a normal physiology and functional roots. It is important especially in commercial micropropagation systems that all of the plants come through this transition as material losses can be costly. Some plant species can be more difficult than others to wean. It has been reported that pineapple microplants can be difficult to establish, with poor survival rates in some cases, a prolonged stage in the nursery (of up to 5 months) with sometimes high mortality rates and very slow root and shoot development This experiment examines the effect of a range of auxin concentrations on acclimatization and plant development during weaning. P 071 Eileen O Herlihy Barbara Doyle-Prestwich Eileen O’ Herlihy Dept. Zoology, Ecology & Plant Science, National University of Ireland, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland. eoh@ucc.ie
- 170. 170 P 072 Apple H Chu Lei Li Hongjia Liu Clive Lo Apple H Chu School of Biological Science The University of Hong Kong Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong China clivelo@hkucc.hku.hk Identification of defense-related genes in sorghum responding to the challenge by Colletotrichum sublineolum Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Sorghum is one of the five top cereal crops in the world. It is an annual grass that is extremely drought tolerant, making it an excellent choice for arid and dry areas. Colletotriclum sublineolum, one of the more important genera of plant pathogenic fungi, causes anthracnose in sorghum, affecting leaves, stems, peduncles, panicles and grains, either separately or all together. Sorghum anthracnose, one of the most important sorghum diseases, limits grain production in most growing regions around the world. Suppression subtractive hybridization was used to identify sorghum genes induced in defense response. Two cDNA libraries enriched for transcripts differentially expressed in C. sublineolum -infected and uninfected sorghum (cultivar DK18, which is resistant to C. sublineolum) were generated. After differentially screening by membrane-based hybridization and subsequent confirmation by reverse northern blot analysis, selected clones were sequenced and analyzed. Seventy-five unique cDNA clones were obtained and assigned into fourteen different groups according to the putative functions of their homologous genes in the database. Most of these clones were not previously classified as being induced in response to pathogens. Further analysis and characterisation will be discussed.
- 171. 171 Increased nitrite reductase activity in tobacco reveals a stay-green phenotype Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology The common form of nitrogen taken up by plants is nitrate and ammonium. Nitrate is reduced in the cytosol to nitrite by the enzyme nitrate reductase (NR). Nitrite itself is reduced to ammonium in the chloroplasts by the enzyme nitrite reductase (NiR) or in the plastids of non-photosynthetic organs. Residual nitrate/nitrite in harvested leaf material can lead to the formation of undesirable compounds such as N-nitrosamines. The major nitrosating agent is nitrite (Yamasaki et al., 2000; Morikawa et al., 2004). By modifying the nitrogen pathway it should be possible to influence the build up of nitrite in the cell by controlling the activity of NiR. In this study an Arabidopsis thaliana NiR (AtNiR) was isolated and used to transform tobacco plants under the control of a constitutive promoter (CERV – Carnation Etched Ring Virus (Hull et al., 1986)). The aim was to over express NiR in an attempt to alter the level of residual nitrite in the leaf. The expression of the introduced AtNiR protein was analysed by western blot. A stay-green phenotype was observed in this primary AtNiR population. Further investigation of the T1 homozygous population demonstrated an increased NiR and NR activity, lower nitrite levels as well as a stay-green phenotype. This reveals the importance of NiR in primary nitrogen assimilation and how modification of this key enzyme affects both the nitrogen and carbon metabolism of tobacco plants. P 073 Susie Davenport* Peter Lea^ Martin Maunders* Jutta Tuerck* *Advanced Technologies (Cambridge) Ltd., 210 The Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WA UK ^ Lancaster University, Department of Biological Sciences, Lancaster LA1 4YQ UK Susie Davenport Advanced Technologies (Cambridge) Ltd., 210 The Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WA, UK susie.davenport@atcbiotech.com
- 172. 172 P 074 Lee Kwan Tang Clive Lo Lee Kwan Tang School of Biological Sciences, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China clivelo@hkucc.hku.hk Function characterization of an anther-specific DFR gene in Arabidopsis thaliana Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Previously it was estimated that approximately 3500 genes were expressed specifically within the Arabidopsis anther. Characterization of anther sterile mutants in molecular level not only provides insights into the regulation of male gametogenesis, but also offers potential applications to plant breeders. An Arabidopsis T-DNA mutant with an insertion within a gene encoding a homologue of dihydroflavonol reductase (DFR) was recently identified in our laboratory. Homozygous mutant plants are entirely devoid of mature pollen. Normal silique elongation fails to proceed and no seeds are produced. . Reciprocal crossings demonstrated that the mutant pistils were fertile. Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) revealed a significantly high level of the gene transcripts in flowers. Furthermore, transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing a promoter::GUS construct demonstrated that the gene is anther-specific and is associated with tapetum development.
- 173. 173 Root enhancement by root-specific reduction of the cytokinin status Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology The root system is an important plant organ, which anchors the plant in the soil, takes up water and nutrients and may be transformed into a storage organ. Cytokinin is a negative regulator of root growth. Here we show that transgenic Arabidopsis and tobacco plants expressing a cytokinin-degrading CKX gene under control of a root-specific promoter show an enhanced root system and lack the detrimental effects of cytokinin-deficiency on shoot growth. Elongation of the primary root, root branching and biomass formation was increased up to 80%. Thus it was shown that (i) targeted interference with the cytokinin status may produce localized effects and (ii) that a single dominant gene can be used to regulate a complex trait, root growth. The content of several micro- and macro-nutrients was increased consistently and significantly in leaves of Arabidopsis plants with an enlarged root system, which shows the potential usefulness of the approach for biofortification of plants as well as phytoremediation. P 075 Tomás Werner* Ute Krämer‡ Thomas Schmülling* * Institute of Biology/Applied Genetics, Free University of Berlin, Germany ‡Heidelberg Institute of Plant Sciences (HIP), University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 360, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany Thomas Schmülling Institute of Biology/Applied Genetics, Free University of Berlin Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 6 D-14105 Berlin, Germany tschmue@zedat.fu-berlin.de
- 174. 174 P 076 Emilie Vinolo* Petra Tafelmeyer* Maryline Masson* Jean-Christophe Rain* Heribert Hirt† Jens D. Schwenn‡ Martin F. Yanofsky¶ Laurent Daviet* *Hybrigenics SA, Paris, France †URGV Plant Genomics, Evry, France ‡ Fakultät für Biologie, Ruhr Universität, Bochum, Germany ¶ University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA Emilie Vinolo Hybrigenics SA Services 3-5 impasse Reille 75014 Paris, France evinolo@hybrigenics.com Highly complex, random-primed domain libraries for yeast two-hybrid analysis of A. thaliana interactome Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) protein interaction screening has proven to be a method of choice for the analysis of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana interactome, mostly thanks to pairwise testing1 or screening of oligo dT- primed cDNA libraries2, 3 . However, interaction map completeness has been limited by the use of full-length proteins and C-terminal polypeptide fragments which result in significant false negative rates. To circumvent these limitations, we have used a domain-based strategy to construct two highly complex, random-primed cDNA libraries. The first library has been prepared from one-week-old seedlings which grew in vitro at 24°C with 16 hours of light per day. The second library was obtained by combining opened and unopened flowers. The complexity of each library is greater than 10 million independent fragments in yeast, with an average fragment size of 800 bp. To ensure exhaustive and reproducible Y2H results, these libraries are screened to saturation using an optimized cell-to-cell mating procedure. This allows the testing of 97 million interactions per screen on average, corresponding to a 10-fold coverage of the library. As a consequence, multiple independent fragments are isolated for each interacting partner, enabling the immediate delineation of a minimal interacting domain and the computation of a confidence score4 . These two A. thaliana libraries have been integrated into our high- throughput yeast two-hybrid platform and are available for screening on a fee-for-service basis. Results from representative screens performed on both libraries will be presented at the meeting. References : 1. Gremski K. et al. 2007, Development, 134:3593 2. Andreasson E. et al. 2005, EMBO Journal, 24:2579 3. Lillig C.H. et al. 2001, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 392:303 4. Formstecher E. et al. 2005, Genome Research, 15:376
- 175. 175 Chloroplast-to-nucleus retrograde signalling contributes to photoperiodic development in Arabidopsis Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology The biogenesis and function of chloroplast is largely controlled by nuclear- encoded chloroplast-targeted regulatory and functional proteins, the number of which ranges from 2100 in Arabidopsis thaliana to 4800 in rice. It has also become clear that retrograde signals from plastid to nucleus contribute to the regulation of nuclear gene expression. This signalling involves multiple factors including tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathway (producing chlorophyll) and redox state of chloroplast electron transfer components. The retrograde signalling is crucial for the acclimation to environmental changes, especially under stress conditions. Light periodicity (day length) affects multiple developmental phases of plants, including timing of flowering and seasonal cycle of active growth and dormancy in perennial plants. In this paper, we demonstrate that chloroplast biogenesis is interconnected with photoperiodic development of Arabidopsis. Dysfunction of chloroplast biogenesis, caused e.g. by mutation in chloroplast regulatory component, impaired the perception of light periodicity, especially under short day conditions. Thioredoxins are small regulatory proteins, which catalyze disulphide-dithiol interchange in their target proteins thus being crucial for the regulatory redox networks in cellular compartments. Thioredoxin reductases mediate the internal and external signals to thioredoxins. Mutation in the nuclear NTRC gene encoding chloroplast NADPH-thioredoxin reductase (NTRC) severely reduced the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana. Besides retarded growth, T- DNA insertion ntrc line showed distinct developmental and metabolic defects when grown under short-day conditions: small cell size, reduced number of chloroplasts, delayed flowering and senescence, low chlorophyll and anthocyanin content, and low carbon assimilation rate. The mutant phenotype was less severe in plants grown under long-day conditions. Transcript profiling of ntrc plants revealed a pattern of differentially- expressed genes coupled to the ntrc phenotype. Chlorophyll biosynthesis- related genes differentially expressed in ntrc included the key regulatory genes in this biosynthetic pathway, HEMA1 and GUN5. The latter gene has also been identified as a component of retrograde signalling pathways from chloroplast to the nucleus. Furthermore, ntrc plants showed defects in the perception of blue light, presumably due to a distinct repression of CRYPTOCHROME2 (CRY2), which encodes the blue-light receptor in Arabidopsis. CRY2 controls plant circadian clock that regulates the photoperiodic development in plants. Our results indicate that chloroplast retrograde signals are crucial to correct function of light perception systems in plants. Thus apart from being a source of energy, functional chloroplasts are important factors controlling plant development and responses to environmental changes. P 077 Anna Lepistö Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi Eevi Rintamäki Eevi Rintamäki Department of Biology University of Turku FI-20014 Turku, Finland evirin@utu.fi
- 176. 176 P 078 A. Matros1 S. Kaspar1 U. Seiffert2 Mock, H.-P.1 1 IPK-Gatersleben Corrensstr. 3 06466 Gatersleben, Germany Applied Biochemistry 2 SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2, 5DA, Scotland, United Kingdom, Mathematical Biology Andrea Matros IPK-Gatersleben, Applied Biochemistry, Corrensstr. 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany matros@ipk-gatersleben.de Analysis of barley (Hordeum vulgare) grain development using an LC-based approach Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology As a consequence of increasing importance in the brewing industry, for human and animal nutrition, and plant reproduction, intensive research on cereal seed proteins has been in the focus of plant breeders. Many factors affect embryo development and accumulation of storage compounds, being the final stage of growth in cereals, and thus determine the final grain weight and quality [1]. Therefore, understanding of the physiological, metabolic, and biochemical aspects of the development of cereal caryopses is of big interest. Recently, intensive work has been performed on monitoring transport and accumulation of nutrients in plant embryos mainly based on metabolite and gene expression analysis [2, 3]. But, despite numerous reports on proteome analyses of mature and germinating barley seeds and seedlings, kinetic analyses of developing barley grains are still rare. We aim at qualitative and quantitative protein profiling to monitor changes in protein composition during seed development using barley as model system. In our presentation we will focus on LC-based label-free techniques for comparative protein analysis. Barley seeds of various developmental stages (5, 7, 10, 12, and 16 days after flowering) were analysed. Therefore, whole crude extracts were digested and tryptic peptides directly analysed using a nanoLC system combined with ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS (Waters). Data acquisition was performed by a data independent strategy, called MS/MSE . For data processing and protein profiling Expression Software (Waters) was utilised processing the intensities of molecular ions for quantification and the fragment and molecular ions for identification. Quantification between any two samples can be performed at either the peptide or protein level [4], in which quantification at the protein level involves mapping of detected peptides to proteins in the database. Besides, quantification at the peptide level allows also groups of unidentified peptides. For an elucidation of statistically significant and objective kinetic patterns and biomarker identification multivariate statistics was applied. Prior to this, some data pre-processing and initial visualization was performed to ensure the quality of the data and the appropriateness of the subsequently applied clustering algorithm. A number of computational intelligence based clustering algorithms, such as Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Neural Gas (NG), that have proven to be highly suitable in similar context, were applied for the clustering task. The obtained results indicate the validity of our approach for the elucidation and visualisation of changes in protein patterns during developmental processes. In fact, using LC-based approaches is especially advantageous when investigating samples with high degrees of complexity and huge dynamic range. The future task will be to transfer the developed analytical methods from the scale of the whole organ down to the level of an individual cell to monitor spatiotemporal patterns in dissected seed tissues. [1] Barnabas et al., Plant Cell and Environment, 2008: 31, 11-38 [2] Wobus et al., Recent Res. Devel. Plant Mol. Biol., 2005, 2: 1-29 [3] Sreenevasulu et al., Plant Journal, 2006: 47, 310-327 [4] Silva et al., Anal. Chem., 2005: 77, 2187-2200 [5] Seiffert et al, (Eds.), 2005: Bioinformatics using Computational Intelligence Paradigms. Springer, Heidelberg
- 177. 177 Identification of A. thaliana mutants affected in the iron- dependent expression of the AtFer1 ferritin gene Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology In plants, iron homeostasis needs to be tightly regulated to avoid deleterious effects of iron deficiency or excess. Ferritins play an essential role in these processes by sequestering iron in a bioavailable and non toxic form. Ferritin mRNAs are strongly accumulated in response to iron excess leading to protein synthesis and iron storage. To identify molecular events involved in this signalling pathway, we developed a Luciferase (LUC) reporter-gene based strategy to screen mutants affected in the regulation of the iron- responsive ferritin gene AtFer1. After EMS mutagenesis of Arabidopsis seeds carrying a pAtFer1::LUC construct, a screen for mutants showing a high LUC activity in iron sufficient condition was done by bioluminescence imaging. We identified 5 dif (Deregulated In Ferritin) mutants in which AtFer1 expression was strongly up-regulated and we performed further studies on the dif3 mutant. The dif3 mutant displays chlorotic symptoms reverted by iron excess. Positional cloning allows us to identify the dif3 mutation in the TIC (Time For Coffee) gene, a nuclear factor involved in circadian-clock regulation. Preliminary results indicate that the circadian clock do not directly regulate AtFer1 expression, suggesting a novel role for TIC. Results regarding the physiological and molecular characterization of dif3 will be presented. P 079 Céline Duc Stéphane Lobréaux Jossia Boucherez Jean-François Briat Frédéric Gaymard Françoise Cellier Céline Duc Laboratoire de Biochimie et Physiologie Mole´culaire des Plantes, UMR 5004 Agro- M/CNRS/INRA/UMII, Bat 7, 2 place Viala, 34060 Montpellier Cedex 1, France duc@supagro.inra.fr
- 178. 178 P 080 Jozef Balla Petr Kalousek Vilém Reinöhl Stanislav Procházka Stanislav Procházka Mendel Univesity of Agriculture and Forestry, Zemedelska 1 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic prochazk@mendelu.cz The use of pea (Pisum sativum L.) as a model plant Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important plant for the study of plant productivity and also for plant growth correlations. The changes linked to the release of axillary buds from apical dominance were studied on pea seedlings cv. Vladan. Previously we have proved that polar auxin transport in the inhibited axillary buds is not established and soon after decapitation export of auxin from axillary buds was traced by the use of labeled [14 C]-IAA and the establishment of polar auxin transport was visualized by immunolocalization of PIN1 protein. Now we show that also in the stem below and above the axillary bud there are significant changes in PsPIN1 and PsAUX1 gene expression due to canalization of the auxin exported from the outgrowing bud. In the stem above the bud the expression of both genes drops to zero in six hours after decapitation due to the absence of an auxin source. In the stem below the bud a slower decrease of gene expression and after six hours an increase due to the auxin exported from the outgrowing bud could be observed. This work was supported by grants of the Ministry of Education CR – 1M06030.
- 179. 179 Functional characterization of B-type MADS box transcription factors in Gerbera hybrida Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology MADS box transcription factors are main components in the ABCDE-model of flower development that describes how organ identities are determined. The ABCDE-model is based on analysis of mutants from Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum. However, studies conducted in diverse plant species have shown interesting diversification of this model. For example, most core eudicot species have three B-function genes belonging to PI-, euAP3- and TM6-lineages while both Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum have lost their TM6- type gene. In contrast to the classical B-function genes that define petal and stamen identity, the function of TM6-type genes in Solanaceae-species has specialized in determining stamen but not petal identity. Gerbera hybrida is a member of the large sunflower family (Asteraceae), which is characterized by composite inflorescences consisting of morphologically different types of flowers. We have studied the function of the three Gerbera B-type MADS-box genes: the PI-type gene GGLO1, the euAP3-type GDEF2 and the TM6-type GDEF1. Expression analysis and transgenic phenotypes show that GGLO1 and GDEF2 mediate the classical B-function. However, in addition to the expected interaction of the GDEF2 and GGLO1 proteins, GDEF1 strongly interacts with GGLO1 in yeast. The pattern of GDEF1 expression deviates from the expression of conventional B-type genes, suggesting a more specialized function. Comparison of phenotypes of the transgenic Gerbera lines with reduced expression of GDEF1 and GDEF2 also suggests functional diversification. P 081 Suvi K. Broholm Satu Ruokolainen Eija Pöllänen Mika Kotilainen Paula Elomaa Teemu H. Teeri Suvi K. Broholm Department of Applied Biology P.O.Box 27, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland suvi.broholm@helsinki.fi
- 180. 180 P 082 Anne Honkanen Satu Lehesranta Jan Dettmer Ove Lindgren Annelie Carlsbecker Ykä Helariutta Anne Honkanen Institute of Biotechnology, Viikinkari 1, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland Anne.Honkanen@Helsinki.fi Pattern formation of the Arabidopsis root Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Plant vasculature is of great importance for plant growth and development as it connects all parts of the plant and allows the transport of water, nutrients, and signalling molecules. Currently, our knowledge regarding how the development of plant vasculature is regulated is relatively limited. The influence of various hormones have been emphasized by several studies, but few regulatory factors have been identified, and only one, APL, has been shown to determine phloem identity (Bonke et al., 2003, Nature 426:181- 186). APL is a transcription factor necessary, but not sufficient for phloem differentiation, which implies that it represents an intermediate hierarchical level in the transcriptional network determining phloem development. We aim to characterize this network in detail and, furthermore, to identify the targets of APL using a functional genomics approach. In order to to identify novel mutants defective in the phloem development, we have performed a genetic screen using EMS-mutagenized plants expressing the AtSUC2::GFP phloem marker (Imlau A et al., 1999, Plant Cell 11:309-322). This resulted in the identification of a set of novel mutants with patterning defects specific to the stele which were named distorted root vascular pattern1-7 (dva1-7). These mutants all have short primary root, lack AtSUC2::GFP expression at the root tip and are accompanied by delayed and distorted phloem development. Interestingly, in dva1 and dva2 mutants xylem develop ectopically in the pericycle layer adjacent to xylem axis. Expression of APL and cytokinin signalling inhibitor, AHP6 ( Mähönen et al. 2006, Science 311:94-98) is reduced. This suggests that dva1 and dva2 act upstream of the phloem identity determining gene APL and they may interact with cytokinin signalling pathway. Dva1 and dva2 are both necessary for normal development of vascular tissues in the root. Mapping and characterization of these genes and their putative roles in vascular development will be discussed.
- 181. 181 Study of the genetic and physiological control of juvenility in plants Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology The juvenile phase (JP) of vegetative growth can be defined as the early period of development during which the plants are incompetent to initiate reproductive development, and they are effectively insensitive to photoperiod. It is during the adult phase of vegetative growth that the shoot apical meristem acquires the competence to respond to floral inducers required for the transition to reproductive phase. The juvenile to adult transition within the vegetative phase is associated with several physiological and biochemical markers whilst very little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved in this process. Significant advances in our understanding of the genetic control of developmental transitions derive from studying the vegetative to reproductive phase change in Arabidopsis. During this transition, FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) protein, an output of the photoperiod pathway, acts at the apex in concert with the FLOWERING LOCUS D transcription factor, resulting in floral initiation. Here we exploit Antirrhinum and Arabidopsis as model systems to understand the genetic and environmental factors that regulate the floral incompetence during JP. We approached this by hypothesizing that plants are florally incompetent during their JP due to inactivity of the photoperiodic floral induction pathway, FT protein is not translocated to the apex or that the apex is incapable of responding to FT. A physiological assay has been developed in Antirrhinum that allows the length of the JP to be measured. Irradiance has been found as a key modifier of the length of JP; reduced light levels prolonged juvenility. The effect of irradiance on carbohydrate accumulation and its effect on the juvenile to adult transition within the vegetative phase were studied in Antirrhinum. HPLC analysis indicates a correlation between limiting photosynthetic assimilates and transition within the vegetative phase. Furthermore, experimental data suggest that a carbohydrate threshold level may be required before plants undergo a transition from a juvenile to an adult phase of plant development. Studying the effect of CO2 on the length of the JP further confirms the linkage of the length of JP and assimilation availability. Using the physiological assay to determine the length of juvenility in Arabidopsis, differences in JP length in Col-0, Ws-4 and Ler have been revealed. Col-0 was found to have the shortest JP length. Moreover, by using this assay with defined mutants, it was possible to identify genes involved in regulation of the vegetative phase transition in Arabidopsis. This work is supported by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), grant HH3728SX to B.T. IG.M wishes to acknowledge the Hellenic State Scholarships Foundation (I. K. Y.) for financial support. P 083 Ioannis G. Matsoukas Andrea Massiah Steven Adams Alison Jackson Veronica Valdes Karl Morris Brian Thomas Ioannis G. Matsoukas Warwick HRI, University of Warwick, Wellesbourne Warwick, CV35 9EF UK I.Matsoukas@warwick.ac.uk
- 182. 182 P 084 Magalie Uyttewaal* Olivier Hamant* Marcus Heisler† Elliot Meyerowitz† Yves Couder‡ Arezki Boudaoud‡ Henrik Jönsson¶ Jan Traas* *Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. UMR 5667. 46, Allee d'Italie, 69364 Lyon cedex 07, France †California Institute of Technology, Division of Biology 156-29, Pasadena, California 91125 ‡Laboratoire de Physique Statistique. UMR 8550 CNRS/ENS/Paris 6/Paris 7, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France ¶Department of Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden Magalie Uyttewaal Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes -Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. UMR 5667. 46, Allee d'Italie 69364 Lyon cedex 07, France magalie.uyttewaal@ens-lyon.fr Mechanics of morphogenesis at the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana: an interdisciplinary view Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology During the development of multi-cellular organisms the regulators of growth and patterning must somehow interfere with physical processes to generate specific shapes. How this is achieved, i.e. how molecules assemble into complex systems with a particular form is not known in any organism. Here, we address this central issue in developmental biology using the shoot apical meristem (SAM) in the higher plant Arabidopsis. The shoot apical meristem is a population of stem cells which continuously generates aerial organs and to do so undergoes complex shape changes. Using a combination of physical, mathematical and biological approaches we provide evidence for a model where molecular networks would impact on two separable processes. First a microtubule control of cell wall anisotropy which resists to and feeds back on local stress patterns. Second, an auxin dependent control of the growth rate which define the patterning events. Here we have investigated to which extent both actors are coupled or not, by 1) analyzing the polarity of auxin efflux carrier PIN1 and the orientation of the microtubules in the SAM, 2) analyzing the behavior of PIN1 in the absence of microtubule, 3) analyzing the dynamics of the microtubules when auxin transport is inhibited. Using mechanical models we show that this hypothesis is sufficient to explain all morphogenetic processes observed at the shoot meristem.
- 183. 183 Comparing non-cell-autonomomy of miRNAs and tasiRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology RNA interference (RNAi) or post-transcription gene silencing in plants (PTGS) is a mechanism which complexes of proteins and small RNA molecules (sRNA) act to downregulate gene expression in a sequence specific manner. Shortly after the discovery of the RNAi mechanism, it was already clear that the silencing signal caused by small interfering RNAs (siRNA, sRNAs originated from long dsRNA, usually related to virus replication) could spread from its production site to neighboring cells and even throughout the whole plant. The existence of a systemic silencing mechanism suggested that siRNAs themselves could act as messenger molecules. In contrast to siRNAs, the cell-to-cell spreading of other classes of sRNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and tasiRNAs, has been controversial, with some publications supporting miRNA movement and others arguing against it. We have used artificial miRNAs and tasiRNAs to address the questions of whether miRNAs and tasiRNAs move, and, if so, what determines their trafficking. Our analyses suggest that miRNAs behave in a way similar to siRNAs, spreading 10-15 cells out of their production site, while tasiRNA can travel much farther. However, genetic data suggest that miRNAs and tasiRNAs do not require the same factors necessary for the siRNA movement, suggesting the existence of an alternative trafficking pathway. P 085 Felipe Fenselau de Felippes Detlef Weigel Felipe Fenselau de Felippes Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology Spemannstrasse 37-39, 72076, Tübingen, Germany felipe.felippes@tuebingen.mpg.de
- 184. 184 P 086 Flora Sánchez* Pablo Lunello* Carmen Mansilla* Fernando Martínez* Xiaowu Wang* John Walsh† Carol Jenner† Fernando Ponz* *Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM- INIA). INIA. Autopista A-6, km 7 28040 Madrid – Spain. † Warwick HRI, University of Warwick, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EF, UK. Flora Sánchez Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM- INIA). INIA. Autopista A-6, km 7 28040 Madrid – Spain. sanchez@inia.es Disturbance of Arabidopsis thaliana development by a potyviral infection maps to the P3/p6k1 viral genomic region Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Infections of plants by viruses induce plant disease and associated symptoms result in economic losses in crops. The study of viral infections has led to the discovery of RNA silencing as a plant defence mechanism against plant pathogens and of viral suppressors of gene silencing as the viral mechanism to counter such plant defence. In addition, it has led to the unravelling of the role of small RNAs (sRNAs) in plant development. Developmental symptoms associated with plant disease have been attributed in some systems to the effects of the viral suppressors of gene silencing on the normal performance of the plant sRNA machinery. In the model system Arabidopsis thaliana - Turnip mosaic virus, a potyvirus two different strains of which induce very different disturbances of the plant development, we have identified the viral determinant of developmental symptoms in the P3/p6k1 region, different from the described viral suppressor of gene silencing (HC-Pro). This result emphasises the role of the different viral proteins in disease induction, opens the way to deepen our knowledge of the potyviral proteins in the viral cycle and also to better understand plant growth regulation. Results will be presented and discussed.
- 185. 185 Manipulation of Arabidopsis orthologue for characterisation of embryogenesis-related genes from the oil palm Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology EgPK1 and EgHOX1 are amongst a number of genes from oil palm that have been shown to be up-regulated during somatic embryogenesis. To dissect the role of these genes in planta, analysis of the expression of orthologues of these genes in the model plant Arabidopsis is being carried out. EgPK1 which has sequence similarity with ATPK3 (putative serine threonine protein kinase) of Arabidopsis which has unknown function. This gene is closely related to animal protein S6 kinase. There are only a few members of the S6 kinase subfamily found in plants and these include ATPK1, ATPK2, ATPK6 and ATPK19. These genes appear to have a role in the response of a plant to its immediate environment. To examine the ATPK3 expression in Arabidopsis, RT-PCR was performed on RNA extracted from stems, leaves, flowers, siliques and seeds. ATPK3 mRNA is expressed in all tissues tested with slightly different levels of expression and these results were consistent with in silico data. Promoter:GUS analysis of ATPK3 and EgPK1 is being carried out to determine spatial and temporal expression of these genes. We have explored the role of the ATPK3 gene by examining the phenotypic characteristics of a T-DNA knockout line of ATPK3. Our results indicate that this gene plays a key role in Arabidopsis development. Further analysis will be performed to dissect the function of this gene and determine whether the oil palm orthologue gene is able to rescue the ATPK3 knockout mutant phenotype. P 087 *Zubaidah Ramli *Zinnia Gonzalez Caranza # Meilina Ong Abdullah *Jeremy A. Roberts *Plant Sciences Division, School of Biosciences University of Nottingham Sutton Bonington Campus Loughborough LE12 5RD United Kingdom. # Malaysian Palm Oil Board P.O Box 10620 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Zubaidah Ramli Plant Sciences Division School of Biosciences University of Nottingham Sutton Bonington Campus Loughborough LE12 5RD UK sbxzr@nottingham.ac.uk
- 186. 186 P 088 Anastassia Khrouchtchova Sari Sirpiö Yagut Allahverdiyeva Maria Hansson Rikard Fristedt Alexander VEner Henrik Vibe Scheller Poul Erik Jensen Eva-Mari Aro Anna Haldrup Anna Haldrup Dept. Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 40 Thorvaldsensvej DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark anna@life.ku.dk AtCYP38 ensures early biogenesis, correct assembly and sustenance of photosystem II Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology AtCYP38 is a thylakoid lumen protein comprising the immunophilin domain and the phosphatase inhibitor module. Here we show the association of AtCYP38 withphotosystem (PS)II monomer complex and address its functional role using AtCYP38 deficient mutants. The dynamic greening process of etiolated leaves as well as the early development of seedlings in light under short photoperiod failed in the absence of AtCYP38, due to problems in biogenesis of PSII complexes. Detailed biophysical and biochemical analysis of mature AtCYP38 deficient plants from favourable growth conditions (long photoperiod) revealed (i) intrinsic malfunction of PSII, which (ii) occurred on the donor side of PSII and (iii) was dependent on growth light intensity. AtCYP38 mutant plants also showed decreased accumulation of PSII, which was shown not to originate from impaired D1 synthesis or assembly of PSII monomers, dimers and supercomplexes as such but rather from the incorrect fine-tuning of the oxygen evolving side of PSII. This, in turn, rendered PSII centers extremely susceptible to photoinhibition. AtCYP38-deficiency also drastically decreased the in vivo phosphorylation of PSII core proteins, probably related to the absence of AtCYP38 phosphatase inhibitor domain. It is proposed that during PSII photoinhibition-repair cycle the AtCYP38 protein first assists the dephosphorylation of PSII core proteins, thus enhancing the degradation of damaged D1 protein, and then guides the proper folding of D1 (and CP43) into PSII thereby making the correct assembly of the water-splitting Mn4-Ca cluster feasible even upon high turnover of PSII.
- 187. 187 Role of a GDSL lipase-like protein as sinapine esterase in Brassicaceae Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Members of the Brassicaceae accumulate sinapate esters with sinapoylcholine (sinapine) and sinapoylmalate as major compounds. Sinapine is a characteristic antinutritive seed component found mainly in the embryo of the seed and sinapoylmalate in the cotyledons of the seedling. During early stages of seed germination sinapine is hydrolyzed to sinapate and choline by an esterase activity (SCE). The enzyme has been described biochemically, but the protein structure and the corresponding gene have not been characterized. Based on enzyme purification from germinating seeds of oilseed rape (Brassica napus), peptide sequences of SCE were generated and used to clone a full-length cDNA. Heterologous expression of this cDNA in Nicotiana benthamiana conferred SCE activity to the leaf protein extract. Sequence analysis of the purified oilseed rape SCE reveals homology of the protein with a newly described group of GDSL lipases of Arabidopsis giving rise to the hypothesis that SCE has been recruited from lipolytic enzymes of primary metabolism in the course of evolution. Further biochemical experiments indicate that the SCE has broad substrate specificity towards choline esters including phosphatidylcholine. Also of interest is the reduction of the sinapat ester content due to the overexpression of the SCE. First results show a strong decrease of sinapine in transgenic plants. Future work includes promoter analyses, studies on gene expression and protein localization as well as evaluation of the evolution of this lipase-like enzyme family. P 089 Kathleen Clauß Alfred Baumert Carsten Milkowski Dieter Strack Kathleen Clauß Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB), Weinberg 3 D-06120 Halle Saale, Germany dstrack@ipb-halle.de
- 188. 188 P 090 Helle Martens* Hong Gu‡ Cecilie Karkov Ytting* Gregor Grk* Anja Thoe Fuglsang* Alexander Schulz* * University of Copenhagen, Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Denmark ‡ Abon Biopharm, Co.Ltd. No.198 #12 East Street, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China Helle Martens Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40 DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark hjm@life.ku.dk Development of a technique for non-invasive monitoring of intracellular phosphate changes in plant cells Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Inorganic phosphate (Pi) represents as well a major essential macronutrient for all living organisms and a contributor to contamination of lakes and soils. A better understanding of phosphate absorption and transport within the plant is therefore needed. In plants, Pi is taken up at the root periphery plant and transported to the shoot of an actively transpiring via the dead cells of the xylem. Transport of Pi through plant membranes is not only controlled by specific transporter proteins, but also by the activity of the proton pump energizing them. This control has a high significance for root hairs, endodermis and xylem parenchyma which are key interfaces for uptake, long distance transport and partitioning of nutrients. Recently a nanosensor has been designed, a genetically encoded fluorescent indicator protein from Synechococcus, which can report the cytosolic phosphate levels in real time. The method is based upon the physical process fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between two reporter proteins CFP and YFP. Self-reporting cells will become an important tool to monitor metabolite fluxes in a plant non-invasively, since they will uncover how plant cells are adjusting their cytosolic metabolite concentrations to a set value. Generally, metabolite homeostasis is maintained by transport processes at plasma membrane and tonoplast. The Pi-nanosensor was incorporated into plant cells at key interfaces using protein transduction domains as well as different transient transformation methods. The nanosensor was localised to the cytoplasm in tobacco, Arabidopsis and onion root epidermis including root hairs, as well as to leaf epidermis in tobacco. Preliminary results further suggest that the sensor may be incorporated into xylem parenchyma via Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression.
- 189. 189 100 years after its discovery, cloning of the tomato gene Potato Leaf unravels a common mechanism in the regulation of leaf, shoot and inflorescence architecture Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Shoot and inflorescence branching are the main determinants of plant architecture and are of agronomic importance for many crop species. In tomato, the MYB transcription factor Blind is an important regulator of shoot branching and inflorescence development. Database searches and molecular cloning revealed three close homologs of Blind: Blind-like1, -2 and -3 (Bli1, Bli2 and Bli3). Reverse genetics approaches demonstrated that these four genes regulate leaf, shoot and inflorescence architecture in an overlapping fashion. Loss of function of these genes leads to reduced shoot branching, inflorescences with lower flower numbers, elevated vegetativeness and simpler leaves. Bli2 acts as a key regulator of leaf complexity, lobing and serration. The phenotype of bli2 tilling lines resembled that of the potato leaf mutant, first described in 1908. Sequencing of Bli2 in six potato leaf accessions proved that Bli2 and Potato Leaf are the same gene. The second gene analysed, Bli3, seems to play a less important role, but interestingly Bli3-RNAi plants show defects in all the three aspects of development. Blind and Bli1 affect shoot branching and inflorescence development, Blind playing the most important role. Taken together the phenotype of Bli3-RNAi plants and the fact that Potato Leaf and Blind show 92% sequence identity in the MYB domain, we suggest that regulation of shoot, inflorescence and leaf branching involve a common mechanism. Deeper insights into this mechanism are the aim of future research and may be instrumental for breeding purposes. P 091 Bernhard L. Busch* Gregor Schmitz* Abdelhafid Bendahmane† Klaus Theres* * Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIZ) † Unité de Recherche en Génomique Végétale (URGV), INRA, Evry, France Klaus Theres Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIZ) Carl-von-Linné-Weg 10 50829 Cologne, Germany theres@mpiz-koeln.mpg.de
- 190. 190 P 092 Ulla Christensen Henrik Vibe Scheller Ulla Christensen University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Sciences, Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Laboratory for Molecular Plant Biology, Thorvaldsensvej 40, DK- 1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark ulc@life.ku.dk Pleiotropic effects to (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan biosynthesis during endosperm development in barley mutants Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Developmental biology Starch and (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan (BG) are the most abundant carbohydrates in barley endosperm. The biosynthesis of these carbohydrates is closely linked in cereals, as the substrates for starch and BG biosynthesis, ADP- glucose and UDP-glucose, respectively are both derived from the same pathway and can easily be interconverted. An example of this is the observation that the barley lys5 mutant is found to compensate for starch deficiency by incorporating elevated levels of BG compared to the parental variety (Patron et. al. 2004). A detailed characterization of the lys5 mutant revealed that the starch deficiency was caused by a point mutation in the Nst1 gene encoding a plastidial ADP-glucose transporter, and that the mutant had increased levels of cytosolic ADP- and UDP-glucose. Thus, the compensatory biosynthesis of BG in the lys5 mutant is most likely due to a regulation at the substrate level. However novel work by L. Munck indicate that the perturbation of carbon metabolism in the lys5 mutant appears to cause pleiotropic effects in not only starch and BG biosynthesis but also fatty acid and vitamin E biosynthesis (Munck et. al. 2007). The purpose of this work is to carry out a transcriptional profiling of the putative pleiotropic effects of the lys5 mutation, including genes involved in BG biosynthesis, substrate interconversion processes and sugar transport. This may contribute to the unraveling of the complex carbohydrate metabolic network in cereals and to an improved understanding of the limiting factors for biosynthesis of cell wall polysaccharides. N. J. Patron et. al. Plant Physiology (2004) Vol. 135, pp. 2088-2097. L. Munck. Journal of Chemometrics (2007) Published online in Wiley Interscience.
- 191. 191 The wheat GCN2 signalling pathway: Does this kinase play an important role in the protein content of wheat? Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield When yeast and mammalian cells are starved of amino acids, general protein synthesis is down-regulated whilst genes involved in the amino acid biosynthetic pathway are up-regulated; this helps the cell maintain homeostasis and survive. This paradox is controlled by a protein kinase that phosphorylates the eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF2α; the kinase is General Control Non-derepessible-2 (GCN2). This activation pathway has been well characterised in all eukaryotic kingdoms except plants. Recently, however, GCN2 was cloned from Arabidopsis, suggesting that plants also have a co-ordinated response to amino acid starvation induced by GCN2. The potential link between amino acid signalling and nitrogen-use efficiency make the study of this regulatory protein kinase of particular importance in crops. The aims of this research are to elucidate this stress response signalling pathway in wheat by identifying, cloning and characterising GCN2 as well as the upstream and downstream effectors. Latest research from mammalian systems suggests that GCN2 may also play a wider role in virus defence and UV light stress. So far, we have cloned GCN2 and raised specific antibodies. Data will be presented on the effects of nutrient deficiency, UV light and other abiotic stresses on wheat GCN2 as well as eIF2α. Using RNAi we have manipulated GCN2 activity in wheat seeds and the whole plants and the effects on the GCN2 signalling pathway in these plants will be discussed. P 093 Edward H Byrne* Nira Muttucumaru* Astrid Wingler+ Nigel Halford* * Centre for Crop Genetic Improvement, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK. + Department of Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. Edward H Byrne Centre for Crop Genetic Improvement, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK. ed.byrne@bbsrc.ac.uk
- 192. 192 P 094 Maruša Pompe-Novak1 Polona Kogovšek1 Lisa Gow2 Špela Baebler1 Hana Krečič-Stres1 Ana Rotter1 Andrej Blejec1 Kristina Gruden1 Niel Boonham3 Gary D. Foster2 Maja Ravnikar1 1 National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom 3 Central Science Laboratory, York, United Kingdom Maruša Pompe – Novak National Institute of Biology (NIB), Večna pot 111, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia marusa.pompe.novak@nib.si Gene expression in the disease response of potato to PVY infection Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield In nature plants encounter many factors, which have an influence to their growth and development and consequently to the plant product quantity and quality; and which are important from the agronomical, environmental and the social aspects. Among agronomical extremely important biotic factors are also viruses. The plant’s responses to viral infection and disease development are different and much less explored in comparison to the bacterial or fungal infection. There are no chemical means for virus control available (such as fungicides for the control of fungi), and therefore the knowledge of plant – virus interactions is even more important as it provides basis for development of new molecular diagnostic tests, faster progress of agronomic expertise and alternative ways of virus spread control. Plant responses to plant pathogens are complex, involving a range of signaling pathways, and show a broad spectrum of physiological and histological changes. Depending on the pathogen type, plants can exhibit resistance or sensitivity. It has become increasingly apparent that the speed and extent of the plant response determines the outcome of the plant- pathogen interaction. Hosts react to virus infection in complex ways defined by the demands of the virus, host defenses, host stress factors, cellular responses and local and remote tissue responses. Studying single components of the response in isolation can lead to limited conclusions or results, which fail to take into account the complex interactions between the different pathways of the response. Omics technologies are a major step forward in understanding plant - pathogen interactions as they offer a more holistic view of the processes involved. Expression microarrays are currently the most established technique for studying the trancriptome. Potato virus Y (PVY) is of extreme economic importance as it is responsible for yearly losses in production of crops from family Solanaceae in Europe, and thus the subjects of investigation in many research groups all over the world. The tuber necrotic strain of Potato virus Y (PVYNTN ) causes potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease in sensitive potato cultivars. In our studies, gene expression in the disease response of the susceptible, tolerant and resistant potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars to PVY infection was investigated at different times after infection, using omics approaches, among them subtractive hybridization, cDNA microarrays and real-time PCR. The expression of several genes in several metabolic pathways during the infection process, including those involved in photosynthesis, sugar and starch metabolism, cell wall processes and secondary metabolism, suggests their important role in the potato – PVY interaction.
- 193. 193 Increasing wheat yields through increasing grain number Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the staple food for nearly 35% of the world’s population. Wheat yield potential has been estimated at around 21 ton ha-1 but the average of observed wheat yield in the world is less than 3 ton ha-1 . It has been estimated that the global demand of wheat by the year 2020 will be around 1050 million tonnes. The human population by the same year is estimated to reach 6.4 billion, increasing annually at a rate of 1.06%. With limited prospects for an increase in available arable land area, the challenge for wheat breeders is to increase wheat yield per unit of land in order to satisfy the growing demand. From the cross of a ‘large-ear’ spring wheat (Line14) developed at CIMMYT, Mexico and the UK winter wheat Rialto (a high photosynthetic efficiency wheat), 138 double haploid lines were developed. The Line14 parent expresses a longer rachis with 2-3 more spikelets than conventional CIMMYT spring wheats. A total of 69 lines were identified as photoperiod insensitive types and grown in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico in 2004-5 and 2005-6. The full 138 DH lines were grown in the UK both at Cambridge and Sutton Bonington in 2005-2006 and 2006-7, as Ear Rows and at commercial planting density (300 seed/m2 ; Sutton Bonington, 2006-7). Detailed physiological analysis for up to twenty-three traits related to ear fertility and yield components were measured in three different environments. Using 411 DArT and 80 microsatellite markers a linkage map for the L14 x Rialto DH population was developed and Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis was carried out. Initial results from this analysis will be presented and the potential for the ‘large-ear’ phenotype to increase wheat yields will be discussed. P 095 Gracia Ribas-Vargas* Jayalath de Silva* Adam Docherty* Oorbessy Gaju* Peter Werner† Mark Dodds† Roger Sylvester-Bradley‡ Matthew Reynolds¶ Sean Mayes* John Foulkes* * Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, LE12 5RD † 56 Church Street, Thriplow, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7RE ‡ ADAS Centre for Sustainable Crop Management, Boxworth, Cambridge, CB3 8NN ¶ CIMMYT, Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600, Mexico, D.F.,Mexico Gracia Ribas-Vargas Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, LE12 5RD, UK gracia.ribasvargas@nottingham.ac .uk
- 194. 194 P 096 Majse Nafisi Jesper Harholt Ulla Christensen Henrik Vibe Scheller Yumiko Sakuragi Yumiko Sakuragi Department of Plant Biology Faculty of Life Sciences University of Copenhagen Thorvaldsensvej 40 1871 Frederiksberg, Denmark ysa@life.ku.dk A novel role of pectic arabinan: involvement in resistance against the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield The cell wall is one of the most important structural components of plants. The wall defines cell shapes, provides strength to withstand the turgor pressure, influences cell development, and serves as the last physical barrier against invading pathogens. Pectins constitute ca. 30% of the cell wall polysaccharides and fill space between the load-bearing cellulose- hemicellulose network. Only a few examples are known about the defense roles of the pectin polymers. Previously studies have identified that oligogalacturonides released after digestion of homogalacturonan by pathogen-derived endopolygalacturonase elicits a defence response in the host, thereby functioning as an endogenous signal for the host defence activation. We have recently identified a pectin mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, arabinan deficient 1 (arad1), defective in the pectic arabinan biosynthesis. Detailed cell wall composition analyses identified that arad1 has 70% less arabinose in the pectic rhamonogalacturonan I fraction. The mutant did not show a visible growth phenotype distinct from the wild type, indicating that arabinan is not essential for plant growth. However, arad1 mutants showed increased susceptibility to the necrotic fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea, while they appear to show the wild-type level of susceptibility to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. These results indicate that arabinan plays a role in interaction with Botrytis by alleviating the disease development. Molecular mechanism that account for the arabinan function in disease alleviation is currently under investigation. We have identified arabinan-degrading activities in the supernatant of the Botrytis culture both by AZCL-conjugated arabinan plant assay and LC-MS analysis. Our current working hypothesis is i) that oligoarabinosides released by the fungal arabinan-degrading enzymes act as an elicitor that activates the host defence response and thereby diminishes the disease development, or ii) that arabinan plays a structural role in reducing the rate of fungal penetration and/or diffusion of virulence factors within the host wall. The current study provides the first evidence that the pectic arabinan plays roles in plant defence. Detailed characterization of the underlying molecular mechanisms will be presented.
- 195. 195 Genetic dissection of a QTL for grain size in wheat Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield The yield of wheat is determined by the factors spike number per plant, grain number per spike and grain weight. Grain size also constitutes an important component of the domestication syndrome of crop plants. Since these traits are usually inherited in a quantitative fashion the use of the usual mapping populations, such as recombinant inbreds or doubled haploids only leads to the detection of QTLs, however, does not allow to trace the single genes. Therefore the concept of advanced backcross breeding proposed by Tanksley and Nelson (1996) and the subsequent development of nearly isogenic lines (NILs) was applied to detect and further dissect a QTL for grain weight into a single Mendelian gene. The previously described QTL for grain weight QTgw.ipk-7D associated with microsatellite marker Xgwm1002-7D was originally detected in a BC2F3 advanced backcross population of the German winter wheat variety ‘Prinz’ and the synthetic wheat line W-7984 (lab designation: M6) (Huang et al, 2003). We developed nearly-isogenic lines (NILs) carrying introgressions of M6 in the genetic background of ‘Prinz’ with varying size on chromosome 7D. The BC4F3 NILs had a 10% increased 1000-grain weight compared to the control group and the recurrent parent ‘Prinz’ and 84.7% of the phenotypic variance could be explained by the segregation of marker Xgwm1002-7D. The trait increased grain weight was strongly correlated with increased grain length and increased plant height, while the trait grain number per ear was stable between the NILs and the control group. It was possible to delimit the QTL QTgw.ipk-7D to the interval Xgwm295- Xgwm1002 which is located in the most telomeric bin 7DS4-0.61-1.00 in the physical map of wheat chromosome arm 7DS. We propose the presence of a gene modulating grain weight with the preliminary designation gw1 which has a recessive or intermediate mode of inheritance for the phenotype large grain. Furthermore, our data suggest the presence of a novel plant height reducing locus Rht on chromosome arm 7DS of ‘Prinz’. The two phenotypes large grain and increased plant height may reflect the pleiotropic action of one gene or may be caused by two linked genes. Currently we are in the process of developing a large number of homozygous recombinant lines for a further fine mapping of QTgw.ipk-7D. In general, our data support the concept of using nearly isogenic introgression lines for validating and dissecting QTLs into single Mendelian genes and open the gateway for map-based cloning of a grain-weight QTL in wheat. P 097 Marion Röder Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Corrensstr. 3 D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany roder@ipk-gatersleben.de
- 196. 196 P 098 Yana Mishutkina Anastasiya Kamionskay Konstantin Skryabin Yana Mishutkina Centre Bioengineering - Russian Academy of Sciences Prosp.60-letya Oktyabrya 7/1, 117312 Moscow, Russian Federation yamishutkina@mail.ru Regeneration and genetic transformation of Russian sugar beet cultivars and production of herbicide- resistant plants Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield Sugar beet (Beta Vulgaris L.) is traditional and basic domestic source for sugar production in Russian Federation. Оn average 25-30% its yield are lost because of weeds. Over the half of the sugar beet cultivation costs are incurred as a result of weeds control. Genetic engineering methods allow to product sugar beet plants with improved agricultural characteristics, for example, herbicide resistance. The aim of our research was to study regeneration and transformation competence of Russian sugar beet cultivars and to produce transgenic lines expressing the bar gene, which determines resistance to herbicides based on the phosphinothricin. In vitro regeneration techniques have been optimized for seven lines and varieties of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) of Russia selection. The frequency of shoot regeneration from somatic cells and tissues varies from 10 to 97% depending on the explant type, the culture-medium composition, and the genotype. The Agrobacterium-mediate transformation parameters were optimized (the explants pre-cultivation time, the time of co-cultivation with Agrobacterium in liquid and solid media). Also selection system of the transgenic cells on phosphinothricin (ppt) (the ppt concentration and the time of selection) was optimized. Thus, it be came possible to avoid the formation of chimerical shoots among the initial transformants. Transgenic plants of the five varieties were obtained via an Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation system, using the optimized regeneration and transformation techniques. Stable integration of the bar gene into the genome was confirmed by Southern blot analysis. Transgenic plants showed high resistance to Basta herbicide under the following conditions: in vitro (400 mg/l ppt), greenhouse (9 l/ha) and field conditions (3 l/ha). Now we research bar gene expression in sugar beet plants generations.
- 197. 197 Genetic dissection of seasonal vs recurrent flowering for better management of the production of fruits in the cultivated strawberry Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield In France, among the most important agricultural productions, strawberry (Fragaria) is important for rural development and for maintaining an activity in rural regions. Today, this species is subjected to evolutions due to the global warming and due to modification of agronomical techniques (e.g. development of soiless culture). The new challenge for this crop is to control flowering in order to better manage fruit production. In this species, two different modes of flowering exist. These modes affect the flowering duration and therefore the period of fruit production. Flowering can occur only once a year in spring (seasonal-flowering genotypes) or can occur all along the growing period of the plant (recurrent flowering genotypes). Between these two extremes, all intermediate modes of flowering can exist. Our research aims to better characterize the molecular and genetic determinism of flowering. The applied objective of this research is to develop novel strawberry cultivars with extended production for better competitiveness and easier management of farmer work. This work is conducted in collaboration with private companies in order to give benefit to consumers as to strawberry industry. Mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling the flowering duration of cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch., 2n=8x=56) can be used to provide a better understanding of its genetic control and to develop marker assisted selection for breeders. For this purpose, a segregating population of 213 individuals of a cross between ‘Capitola’ and CF1116, two genotypes with contrasting flowering modes, was used for genetic mapping. In order to evaluate the seasonal vs recurrent flowering, the number of inflorescences was measured at the end of July for seven years. In addition, the number of runners was evaluated at the same period but only for three years. For the number of inflorescences, a total of two significant QTLs was detected by composite interval mapping, both located on the female map. One of these QTL was detected each of the seven years of observation. Since its percentage of phenotypic variance explained was high to very high according to the year (from 20% to 88%), it can be considered as major QTL. Considering the polyploidy of the cultivated strawberry, these two QTLs were localized on linkage groups belonging to different homoeology groups. For the number of runners, one significant QTL was detected two of the three years of observations. This QTL colocalized with the major QTL linked to the flowering mode (seasonal vs recurrent flowering) on the female map and its percentage of phenotypic variance explained ranged from 18% to 50% according to the year. The identification of QTLs linked to the mode of flowering is a first step to understand genetic and molecular control of everbearing strawberry in order to better manage strawberry production. P 099 Amélia Gaston Estelle Lerceteau-Köhler Laure Barreau Aurélie Petit Sadia Schafleitner Mathieu Rousseau-Gueutin Béatrice Denoyes-Rothan Amélia Gaston INRA – UREF, 71, av Edouard Bourleaux BP 81, 33883 Villenave d'Ornon Cedex, France amelia.gaston@bordeaux.inra.fr
- 198. 198 P 100 Anagnostis Argiriou Georgios Michailidis Apostolos Kalyvas Athanasios Tsaftaris Anagnostis Argiriou Institute of Agrobiotechnology Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, 6th Km Charilaou Thermi Road, 57001, Greece argiriou@certh.gr Characterization of genes improving cotton fiber quality from allotetraploid (Gossypium hirsutum) cultivated cotton and its diploid progenitors Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Improving yield In cotton, the most important industrially cultivated crop for its fibers, fibre initial cells undergo a rapid cellular re-programming around anthesis to form the long cellulose fibres. On the day of anthesis the cotton fibre initial cells balloon out from the ovule surface and so are clearly distinguished from adjacent epidermal pavement cells. Microarray experiments indicated that in these cells are predominantly expressed gene families including proteins involved in cell wall biosynthesis, lipid metabolism, and cuticle biosynthesis, indicating the essential role of these cellular components during rapid elongation. To elucidate the role of genes involved in cotton fiber development we isolated and characterized genomic clones encoding cotton xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolases (XTH) and Profilin (PRF) isoforms from cultivated cotton (G. hirsutum) and its diploid progenitors (G. arboreum and G.raimondii). Furthermore we analyzed the expression patterns in different G. hirsutum varieties, differing significantly in fiber percentage, as well as in the allotetraploid species G. barbadense that has significantly higher fiber length in comparison to G. hirsutum. Quantitative real time PCR and High Resolution Melting experiments indicated that in G. hirsutum cultivars, in cotton fibers during early stages of fiber elongation different expression patterns exist among the XTH and PRF homologs from G. arboreum and G. raimondii. We also isolated the promoters of XTH and PRF and we performed in silico analysis to identify putative regulatory elements. DNA blotting analysis indicated that at least two copies of XTH and PRF are present in G. hirsutum whereas the diploid progenitor species G. arboreum and G. raimondii has only a single copy. These results suggest that the XTH and PRF genes are positive regulators of both cotton fiber elongation and density and suggest that overexpression of these genes in cotton species with low fiber yield would probably result in improvements of cotton fiber characteristics.
- 199. 199 Characterisation of bioavailability of distinctive pesticides by applying model-plants and optimised extraction method Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed The bioavailability of pesticides represents a considerable factor in respect of both environmental protection and food safety as pesticides are among the most frequently applied agrochemicals. Estimation of bioavailability is indispensable for appropriate food safety and risk assessment of plants. Up to now comparative study on bioavailability of distinctive pesticides from several soil types in cases of more than one model plants has not been performed yet. The objective of this study is to model the plant uptake of pesticides in wheat (Triticum aestivum) and corn (Zea mays) samples, in order to acquire information regarding ˝biologically incorporated˝ amounts of examined pesticides. Bioavailability of 5 pesticides (pirimicarb, diuron, simazine, Acetochlor, chlorpyrifos) has been investigated in cases of three soil types (alluvial, brown forest and sandy soil). Comparison of efficiency of different extraction models was also implemented, as 4 methods have been applied to gain deeper insight into the biological relevance of pesticide application. 2 extracting solvents (humic acid, CaCl2 solutions) were found to be the most appropriate procedures for further studies. One hundred pregerminated wheat, and in parallel 25 corn seedlings were potted in pesticide-treated soils (100ppm, 50ppm, 20ppm). After 21 days plants were harvested and soil samples collected. Pesticide residues from plant and soil were determined by GC-MS technique. The examined soils adsorbed pesticides to significantly different extent, the highest amounts of pesticides were determined in case of brown forest soil. The bioavailable and accumulated amounts of pesticide were observed in the largest quantities in case of soils treated by 100ppm of pesticides, and the detected amounts changed in parallel with the decrease of the initial concentrations of pesticides. It was realised that pesticides were accumulated not equally in different organs of the plants. Depending on the soil type, aerial parts of wheat sample’s treated with 100ppm simazine contained 3.43-4.85 µg/g pesticide at the end of the cultivation period, while in the roots approximately 1.5 µg/g of simazine could be detected. In the 21-day-long period 0.05-0.11 µg/g acetochlor amounts were detected in wheat root, while no traces of pesticide were observed in the aerial parts of wheat. Chlorpyrifos may not penetrate into any segments of test plants. Considerable amounts of pirimicarb (47- 55µg/g) were detected in soils with significant differencesin case of the different soil types. Soil samples sowed by maize contained less pirimicarb (18µg), in case of wheat (49µg). The aerial part of maize contained higher amounts of pirimicarb (36µg/mg) than the wheat samples (14µg/mg) (100ppm). Pirimicarb could be detected in roots of maize, while in case of wheat the regained amounts were under the detection limit. Neither wheat nor maize segments contained detectable amounts of pesticide in case of 20ppm concentration. Wheat and maize samples incorporate diuron mostly into roots. P 101 Katalin Szovati Diána Virág Attila Kiss Attila Kiss Eszterházy Károly University, EGERFOOD Regional Knowledge Centre, Leányka street 6. 3300, Eger, Hungary attkiss@ektf.hu
- 200. 200 P 102 Ana G. L. Assunção Sangita Talukdar Mark M. G. Aarts Ana G. L. Assunção Laboratory of Genetics, Wageningen University, Arboretumlaan 4, NL-6703BD Wageningen, The Netherlands ana.assuncao@wur.nl Identification of Arabidopsis mutants with an altered response to zinc deficiency Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Zinc is an essential micronutrient in all organisms, being the co-factor or structural element of many enzymes and other proteins. A tightly regulated network of metal transport, chelation, trafficking and sequestration exists to insure a constant supply of zinc: the zinc-homeostasis network. Despite the emerging knowledge on the nature of zinc uptake and translocation transporters in plants, it is not known how these genes respond to changes in the internal and/or external zinc status. Thus the regulation of the zinc- homeostasis network remains unraveled. A better understanding of the zinc-homeostasis network will be important for the future application of phytoremediation of metal-polluted soils and will also have important implications for human health, through improved nutritional quality of plants, and for ensuring stable crop production on marginal soils. In this work we describe a mutant screening approach developed with the aim of identifying Arabidopsis mutants that have an altered response to zinc deficiency and identifying the genes in the signalling pathway leading to the zinc deficiency response. ZIP4 is an Arabidopsis zinc deficiency responsive metal transporter gene that shows strong induction and high expression upon zinc deficient conditions (Grotz et al., 1998; van de Mortel et al., 2006). A transgenic Arabidopsis line, stably transformed with a proZIP4::GUS construct and showing a stable GUS-Zn-deficiency induced expression, was mutagenised by gamma-irradiation and the M2 progeny was screened for mutants with an altered GUS-expression using a non-lethal GUS assay (Martin et al., 2006). With the described mutant screening and the developed mutagenised population it was possible to identify positive mutants. Here we show four positive mutants identified, their phenotypes upon zinc deficiency/sufficiency supply and their endogenous ZIP4 gene expression. The most interesting mutants will be genetically mapped and used for positional cloning of the gene and further characterization. References: Martin AC, JC Del Pozo , J Iglesias , V Rubio, R Solano, A De La Pena , A Leyva and J Paz- Ares. Influence of cytokinins on the exp ression of phosphate starvation responsive genes in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal. 24, 559-567 (2000). van de Mortel JE, L. Almar Villanueva, H. Schat, J. Kwekkeboom, S. Coughlan, P.D. Moerland, E. Ver Loren van Themaat, M. Koornneef and M.G.M. Aarts. Large expression differences in genes for iron and zinc homeostasis, stress response, and lignin biosynthesis distinguish roots of Arabidopsis thaliana and the related metal hyperaccumulator Thlaspi caerulescens. Plant Physiol. 142, 1127-1147 (2006). Grotz N TC, Fox, E Connolly, W Park, ML Guerinot and D Eide. Identification of a family of zinc transporter genes from Arabidopsis thaliana that respond to zinc deficiency. Proc. Natl. Acad Sci USA. 95, 7220-7224 (1998).
- 201. 201 Molecular dissection of sensory traits in the potato tuber Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Tubers from Solanum tuberosum group Phureja cultivars score consistently higher than S. tuberosum group Tuberosum cultivars in professional sensory evaluation panels. A recently developed 44,000-element potato microarray was used to identify tuber gene expression profiles that correspond to differences in tuber flavour and texture. Gene expression was compared in two Solanum tuberosum group Phureja cultivars and two S. tuberosum group Tuberosum cultivars; 309 genes were significantly and consistently up- regulated in Phureja whereas 555 genes were down-regulated. Almost half of the genes in these lists can be identified from their annotation and amongst these are candidates that may underpin the Phureja/Tuberosum trait differences. For example, a clear difference in the cooked tuber volatile profile is the higher level of a sesquiterpene compound in Phureja compared with Tuberosum. A sesquiterpene synthase gene was identified as being more highly expressed in Phureja tubers and its corresponding full-length cDNA was demonstrated to encode the appropriate sesquiterpene synthase. Other potential “flavour genes”, identified from their differential expression profiles, include those encoding branched-chain amino acid aminotransferase and a ribonuclease suggesting a mechanism for 5’-ribonucleotide formation in potato tubers on cooking. Major differences in the expression levels of genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis (and potentially texture) were also identified including genes encoding pectin methylesterase, pectin acetylesterase and xyloglucan endotransglycosylase. In addition to volatile compounds, tastants associated with the potato matrix have been put forward as key determinants of potato flavour. Such compounds include the tastants giving rise to the umami taste sensation. Phytochemical analysis was used to assess the levels of the major umami compounds in boiled potato tubers, in cultivars previously assessed for sensory quality. The free levels of the major umami amino acids, glutamate and aspartate and the umami 5’-ribonucleotides, GMP and AMP, were measured in potato samples during the cooking process. The levels of both glutamate and 5’ nucleotides were significantly higher in mature tubers of two Solanum phureja cultivars compared with two Solanum tuberosum cultivars. Calculation of the equivalent umami concentration for five cultivars showed there were strong positive correlations with flavour attributes and acceptability scores from a trained evaluation panel suggesting that umami is an important component of potato flavour. P 103 Wayne Morris Laurence Ducreux Pete Hedley Glenn Bryan Heather Ross Mark Taylor Wayne Morris SCRI, Invergowrie Dundee, DD2 5DA Scotland, UK Wayne.Morris@scri.ac.uk
- 202. 202 P 104 Susanne Rasmussen* Anthony J. Parsons* Hong Xue* Jonathan A. Newman‡ * AgResearch Grasslands, Tennent Drive, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand ‡ University of Guelph, Department of Environmental Biology, Ontario, Canada N1G2W1 Susanne Rasmussen AgResearch Grasslands Tennent Drive, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand Susanne.rasmussen@agresearch.c o.nz High sugar ryegrasses for livestock systems - Gene expression profiling of cultivar, tissue and temperature dependent fructan accumulation Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed There has been mounting interest over the production and environmental benefits from using perennial ryegrass cultivars bred to have higher water soluble carbohydrate content (high sugar grasses - HSGs). HSGs offer opportunities to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxides) from grazed pastures and to improve meat and milk production in livestock. The major reserve carbohydrates in cool-season grasses are fructans, which accumulate predominantly in pseudostems. HSGs have been bred in the UK by IGER and these cultivars are targeted to accumulate high levels of fructans in the blades, the major grazed component of pasture grasses. However, previous experiments with these HSGs have revealed critical constraints to the expression of the trait, possibly showing a strong gene x environment interaction. Achieving a more consistent, and greater than current, expression of the high sugar trait requires a better understanding of the molecular regulatory mechanisms of fructan biosynthesis, accumulation and relocation. Fructans in ryegrass are synthesised by several fructosyltransferases (FTs). First, 1-SST (sucrose: sucrose 1-FT) initiates de novo synthesis of the trisaccharide 1-kestose. 1-FFT (fructan: fructan 1-FT) transfers fructose from 1-kestose or fructans with a higher degree of polymerisation to a variety of pre-existing fructans or sucrose resulting in fructans with ( 2-1) linkages only. The biosynthesis of the neoseries fructans, comprising the majority of fructans in ryegrass, requires 6G-FFT (fructan: fructan 6G-FT) activity leading to ( 2-1) or ( 2-6) linked fructose units, respectively. In the present study, we tested eight L. perenne breeding lines for fructan accumulation under three different temperature regimes in controlled environment chambers. Three of these lines showed significantly higher levels of fructans in blades at warm temperatures and were selected together with one control grass (Fennema) for detailed gene expression analysis. Eight genotypes of each line were clonally propagated, grown at three different temperature regimes (20o C/ 20o C, 20o C/ 10o C, 10o C/ 10o C) and separated into pseudostems and blades. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to analyse the expression of 1-SST, a putative 1-FFT, two 6G-FFT isoforms, and a fructan exohydrolase (1-FEH). Fructans were increased 2.5 to 6.6-fold in both blades and pseudostems at 10o C/ 10o C compared to 20o C/ 20o C, depending on the ryegrass line. All five genes were also highly expressed at 10o C/ 10o C compared to higher temperatures, but only in pseudostems. In contrast, expression of 1-FFT, 6G- FFT, and 1-FEH was lowest at this temperature in the blades. Fructan levels were 3 to 5-fold higher in pseudostems compared to blades and all five genes analysed were significantly more expressed in this tissue. There was a significant line x tissue interaction, showing that only the putative 1-FFT and one of the 6G-FFT isoforms were highly expressed in blades of the line with the highest levels of fructans. Interestingly, the second 6G-FFT isoform was not expressed in this line, but showed highest expression in the control grass Fennema. This clearly indicates that fructan related gene expression is differentially regulated in ryegrass lines differing in their capacity to accumulate high levels of fructans in the blades. These findings also show that transcriptional activation of structural fructan genes is likely to play a major role in fructan accumulation and the identification of transcriptional regulators might offer novel opportunities for the manipulation of fructan biosynthesis in pasture grasses.
- 203. 203 Improved carbon supply results in higher protein content and increased yield of winter wheat grains Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Generally, cereal grain yield increases by improved storage of the low- energy compound starch at the expense of the high-energy compound protein. Consequences of decreased grain protein content are both, reduced baking and feeding quality. The reduced feeding quality requires expensive protein-rich additionally supply. In cooperation with a regional breeding company, we decided to use transgenic approaches to meet the challenge of negative correlation between yield and grain protein content in winter wheat. Based on scientific knowledge about seed-specific activities of transport proteins, we pursued a strategy to improve the sucrose transport into developing seeds to achieve positive effects on grain filling. To reduce the possibility of endogenous suppression, a sucrose transporter from another cereal crop species, Hordeum vulgare, was integrated into the genome of a selected elite wheat cultivar. At the moment, seven transgenic winter wheat lines exist harbouring at different integration loci one copy of the transgene in the homozygous state (HOSUT lines). All lines showed significantly increased grain protein content, but no reduction of the thousand grain weight under green house conditions. Based on a newly developed transformation technology, five of the lines are free of any marker gene. Line HOSUT 10 was grown under different environmental conditions (green house, semi-conditioned green house with growing of the plants in natural soil, field conditions). The line shows significantly increased protein yield per plant (up to 137%) under all growing conditions. The higher protein yield results from both, increased grain protein content and increased yield. HOSUT 10 was crossbreed into seven selected elite cultivars to test the stable occurrence of transgene-mediated characteristics in different genetic backgrounds. 104 individual transgenic lines carrying the HOSUT gene resulted from crossing. They were tested under field conditions. For 72% of the field-grown progenies, significantly increased grain protein content was measured. The grains contain up to 18.9 % grain protein in comparison to 15,6 % and 15.2 % measured for the parental lines. Currently, a second field trial is running to confirm these previously obtained results and, in addition, to estimate yield-related parameters. P 105 Nicola Weichert* Isolde Saalbach* Heiko Weichert* Alok Varshney* Jochen Kumlehn* Ulrich Wobus* Ralf Schachschneider+ Winfriede Weschke* * Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzen- genetik und Kulturpflanzen- forschung (IPK) Corrensstraße 3 D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany + Nordsaat Saatzuchtgesellschaft mbH, D38895 Böhnshausen, Germany Nicola Weichert Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzen- genetik und Kulturpflanzen- forschung (IPK), Corrensstraße 3 D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany weichert@ipk-gatersleben.de
- 204. 204 P 106 Laura Rossini Alberto Vecchietti* Pere Arus** *Plant Genomics Section, Parco Tecnologico Padano, Via Einsten, 26900 Lodi, Italy **Pere Arus Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries: Centre de Cabrils Departament de Genetica Vegetal Carretera De Cabrils S/n 08348 Cabrils Barcelona, Spain Laura Rossini DIPROVE, University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133, Milan, Italy and Plant Genomics Section, Parco Tecnologico Padano, Via Einsten, 26900 Lodi, Italy laura.rossini@unimi.it ERGI (European Rosaceae Genomics Initiative) Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed The plant family Rosaceae contains many of the most important food crops and ornamentals grown in Europe, such as almonds, apples, apricots, black- blueberries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries, roses and various other ornamentals. In 2006, the commercial import/export value of sales of various types of foods produced from these crops in the EC countries exceeded 10 billion euros with a total production of 23.5 million tons on 2.3 million ha (www.fao.org). Rosaceous crops are, overall, valuable targets for the development of functional foods as they are rich in health-related compounds including vitamins, fibers, carotenoids, and beneficial polyphenols. Rosaceous ornamentals have a strong aesthetic value and as such are important for the well-being of humankind. The Rosaceae also includes some timber species and medicinal or nutraceutical plants. Thus, a collective research strategy based on genomics of this family, has the possibility to solve many key issues critical for sustainable and profitable production of rosaceous crops in Europe. Key issues for European Rosaceae industry are quality, biotic stress resistance and abiotic stress tolerance, labour inputs and diversification of production systems for profitable production. Efficient and sustainable production of safe, high-quality and health-promoting food is recognized as a priority by the EU. To these ends, the mission of ERGI (European Rosaceae Genomics Initiative) is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life and well-being of Europeans by promoting the development of novel and improved fruit and ornamental products derived from rosaceous crops. This will be achieved through the development of genomics-based tools and resources that will generate new knowledge and will lead to targeted, marker-assisted breeding of better performing cultivars, insertion of desirable natural genes from wild germplasm by means of cisgenesis, and more environmental-friendly agricultural and commercialization practices that will enhance and preserve the quality of fruits and flowers that reach the marketplace. The membership of ERGI is composed of European scientists from public and private research institutes that are involved in research projects focussing on rosaceous genomics, genetics, proteomics and breeding. Despite the fact that national and international collaboration among research groups involved in Rosaceae genomics projects have already been initiated, a coordinated action at the EU level is needed along with substantial EU and national funding to face key issues critical for the sustainability and profitability of the European Rosaceae-based industries and to meet consumer needs over the coming years.
- 205. 205 Valorisation of waste foliage in industrial chicory Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Different varieties of chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) are cultivated for their leaves (salads, witloof endive, forage) or roots (industrial chicory). The roots of industrial chicory are processed to obtain products used in pharmaceutical, food and feed industry: e.g. inuline, flour for bakery and a coffee-like drink named “chicorée”. This means that, in contrast to salad chicories, the foliage of industrial chicories are not harvested, and their waste cause environmental and phytohygienic problems. Studies have demonstrated that chicory byproducts could form a natural source of antioxidants, known for reducing the risk of cancer and vascular diseases. Breeding of chicory as a functional food, and as a source of natural antioxidants that could replace synthetic ones, requires an understanding of the genetic control of the metabolism of these molecules. To identify genes implicated in the production of antioxidants in chicory, especially phenolic compounds, we will apply a combination of QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) analysis and candidate gene approach. This requires a high through-put method to extract and identify the molecules of interest adapted to genetic analysis. The method we developed simplifies sampling and extraction, and reduces the variability induced by the manipulator. A progeny of 192 genotypes, already used for the construction of a molecular genetic map for chicory, was analysed by a chemical test for antiradical activity (DPPH) and by HPLC. In contrast to the parents of this progeny, significant differences were found between the 192 plants for the concentration of chlorogenic and chicoric acid identified by HPLC, and for the antiradical activity (AR). In addition a good correlation was found between the AR and the concentration of chicoric acid (R2 = 0.85), suggesting that chicoric acid is at least in part responsible for the AR found in our extracts. Other compounds found by HPLC analysis but not identified yet, will be determined by mass spectrometry. For 192 genotypes, three to five clones were obtained by cutting and the analysis of these plants will reveal if differences in the production of phenolic compounds is under genetic control. This information, associated with the molecular markers of the genetic map, might identify QTL involved in the biosynthesis of antioxidant molecules. P 107 Meriem Bahri Philippe Hance Sébastien Grec Jean-Louis Hilbert Theo Hendriks Meriem Bahri Laboratoire Stress Abiotique et Différenciation des Végétaux cultivés (SADV), Bâtiment SN2, 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France meriem.bahri@ed.univ-lille1.fr
- 206. 206 P 108 Phebe Ding Hairul Azhar Sulaiman Phebe Ding Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia phebe@agri.upm.edu.my Harvesting maturiy and ripening temperature to degreen harumanis mango Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed A study was conducted to determine the effect of harvesting maturity and ripening temperature to degreen Harumanis mango (Mangifera indica cv Harumanis). The fruits were harvested at 11, 12 and 13 weeks after flower anthesis. The mangoes were divided into four lots with each lot containing six fruits of mangoes. The fruits were packed in 35.5 cm x 29 cm x 15 cm of fibre board cartons and induced for ripening using 50 mL/L of ethylene gas. The fruits were then kept in the chamber of 15, 20, 25 and 30°C temperatures with 75% relative humidity for 24 h. After 24 h, the fruits were removed from the chamber and allowed to ripen at 25°C of 75% relative humidity. The fruits were analyzed for its quality characteristics at day 0, 1, 3 and 5. The quality characteristics were determined for peel and pulp colour, flesh firmness, soluble solids concentration (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), pH, vitamin C, water loss and chlorophyll content. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with factorial arrangement. The experiment was repeated three times. All the data was subjected to analysis of variance while the mean separation was separated by least significant different. From the study conducted, the chromaticity (C*) and hue (h°) of peel, pulp lightness (L*), flesh firmness, TA and SSC were not affected by the different harvesting maturity. However, the L* values of peel, C* and h° values of pulp, pH, vitamin C content, water loss and chlorophyll content were affected by the different harvesting maturity. The ripening temperatures have a significant effect on the pulp colour (L*, C* and h°), flesh firmness, pH and water loss but not affecting the peel colour (L*, C* and h°), TA, SSC, vitamin C and chlorophyll content. The ripening days shown a significant effect on L* values of peel, pulp colour (L*, C* and h°), flesh firmness, SSC, pH, vitamin C content, water loss and chlorophyll content but did not have a significant effects on C* and ho values of peel and yet TA. There was no significant interaction effects between harvesting maturity and ripening temperatures on peel colour (L*, C* and h°), pulp colour (L*, C* and h°), flesh firmness, TA, SCC, pH, vitamin C content, water loss and chlorophyll content. The interaction between the harvesting maturity and ripening days have significant effect on the L* and C* values of peel colour, flesh firmness, TA, water loss and chlorophyll content of the fruits but not the ho values of peel colour, pulp colour (L*, C* and h°), SSC, pH and vitamin C content. The interactions between ripening temperatures and ripening days have significant effects on h° values of pulp colour, flesh firmness, pH and water loss. However, there were no significant effects on peel colour (L*, C* and h°), pulp lightness and chromaticity, TA, SSC, vitamin C and chlorophyll content. The interaction between harvesting maturity, ripening temperatures and ripening days were not significant on peel colour (L*, C* and h°), pulp colour (L*, C* and h°), flesh firmness, TA, SSC, pH, vitamin C content, water loss and chlorophyll content. The result indicated that different harvesting maturity and ripening temperatures failed to degreen Harumanis mango. The peel colour of Harumanis mango remains green even at the end of the ripening day 5.
- 207. 207 Iron, zink and selenium content of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) lines in winter and spring crop Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed In Haymana, Turkey (Altitude 1050 m) 64 green lentil lines were planted as spring and winter crop in 2006/07 season. Lines and cropping seasons were evaluated for iron, zinc and selenium content. Lentil lines for different cropping seasons showed high variability for Iron, zinc and selenium. In a winter crop, mean Fe, Zn and Se content of lines were 28.67 mg/kg, 8.26 mg/kg and 0.38 mg/kg while in a spring crop, micronutrient contents were 91.47 mg/kg, 9.71 mg/kg and 0.36 mg/kg respectively. Lentil lines in spring crop had higher micronutrient content (Fe, Zn and Se) than winter crop. In conclusion, one can say that spring crop in lentil has higher quality than winter crop for micronutrient concentration. P 109 Abdulkadir Aydoğan* Vural Karagül* Metehan Yüce** Özgür Durmaz** Yusuf Varlık** Ismi Gevrek** M. Bahar Erim** *Central Resarch Institute for field crops P.O. Box: 226 Ulus- Ankara/TURKEY ** İl Kontrol laboratuarı Şehit Cem Ersever Cad. No: 12 Yenimahalle-Ankara/TURKEY Abdulkadir Aydoğan Central Resarch Institute for field crops P.O. Box: 226 Ulus-Ankara, Turkey akadir602000@yahoo.com
- 208. 208 P 110 Karima Boudehri* Gaëlle Cardinet* Gaëlle Capdeville* Christel Renaud* Yves Tauzin* Abdelhafid Bendahmane† Elisabeth Dirlewanger* * INRA, Unité de Recherche sur les Espèces Fruitières, BP81, 33883 Villenave d’Ornon cedex, France † INRA/CNRS/UEVE, UMR 1185, Unité de Recherche en Génomique Végétale, CP5708, 91057 Evry cedex, France Karima Boudehri INRA / UREF 71, Av Edouard Bourlaux BP 81, 33883 Villenave-d'Ornon Cedex, France kboudehr@bordeaux.inra.fr Towards map-based cloning: fine mapping of the D gene involved in peach fruit acidity Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is the second most important fruit tree crop in Europe after apple. It is a diploid species (2n=16) with a short juvenile period (2-3 years) and a small genome (262 Mb) about twice the size of Arabidopsis thaliana. Therefore, peach is considered as a model for Rosaceae. The sugar/acid ratio is an essential component of the organoleptic quality for fruits in the Rosaceae family. The D gene, controlling the low- acid trait in peach, is dominant and segregates as a mendelian character. A peach F2 progeny, obtained from a cross between Ferjalou Jalousia® and Fantasia, segregating for several mendelian traits, was analyzed for fruit quality traits and used for the construction of a genetic linkage map. The D gene was mapped on linkage group 5 and co-localized with QTLs with major effects involved in the control of pH, titratable acidity, organic acid contents and with QTLs with low effect for sugar contents. To understand the molecular and physiological bases of the D gene, a positional cloning strategy is in progress. Using a BSA-AFLP method, 11 AFLP markers were located within 10 cM containing the D gene, with 2 markers co-localizing with this gene. Three SSR markers and six AFLP markers transformed into SCARs were used to identify recombinants among 1510 F2 additional individuals. The fine genetic map of the region around the D gene was realized after genotyping and phenotyping of these individuals that allowed the precision of gene position. In parallel, a new BAC library was realized for the isolation of the D gene using F1 hybrid DNA (obtained from the JxF cross). Screening of the BAC library is in progress using flanking markers in order to construct two physical maps for D and d alleles. Two clones containing the gene (one for each allele) will be identified and the two sequences will be compared in order to identify the D gene. The same strategy can be used for other traits segregating in this progeny and the results could be transferred to other Rosaceae.
- 209. 209 Spatio-temporal leaf growth of Arabidopsis thaliana and characterisation of diel growth dynamics of starch metabolism mutants Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Modifications of plants to improve yield and food/product quality often involve changes in metabolism. The link between metabolism and growth thus needs to be well characterised to obtain plants with high yield and also high productivity for metabolites of interest. We investigate the molecular control underlying diel growth dynamics to unravel the link between plant growth and its metabolism. A digital image sequence processing (DISP) based non-invasive technique for visualising and quantifying spatio-temporal dynamics of leaf growth has been established for Arabidopsis thaliana. This technique now enables to characterise spatio-temporal leaf growth in mutants and transgenic plants for analysis of the molecular control underlying diel growth. Arabidopsis thaliana leaves showed highest relative growth rates (RGR) at dawn and a minimum growth rate at the beginning of the night. Along the lamina, a basipetal gradient of growth rate distribution was found, similar to other dicotyledonous species. Growth of mutants in starch metabolism, with an endogenous change in the diel sugar availability, revealed altered temporal growth patterns with reduced nocturnal growth. These mutants are known to be retarded in growth dependent on the day length. The sugar- sensing mutant gin2-1 does not show any changes in spatio-temporal growth, indicating that the glucose-sensor hexokinase 1 (AtHXK1) does not control wild-type diel leaf growth under the chosen conditions. Diel growth pattern of Arabidopsis leaves are controlled by the growing leaf tissue, independent of the whole plant context, as shown by temporal growth analysis of leaf discs, reproducing the detected growth pattern for wild-type plants and starch mutants. P 111 Anika Wiese-Klinkenberg Maja Christ Bernd Biskup Hanno Scharr Ulrich Schurr Achim Walter Anika Wiese-Klinkenberg Institute Phytosphere ICG 3 Helmholtz Research Center Juelich, D-52425 Juelich Germany A.Wiese@FZ-Juelich.de
- 210. 210 P 112 Holger Hesse Cuong Huu Nguyen Rainer Hoefgen Holger Hesse MPI fuer Molekulare, Pflanzenphysiologie, Potsdam/Golm, Am Muehlenberg 1 D-14476 Potsdam/Golm, Germany hesse@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Improvement of nutritional quality of rice Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Rice is an important cereal and central part of the diet in asian and developing countries. As most crops rice exhibits deficiencies in essential amino acids such as tryptophan, lysine and the sulphur containing amino acids cysteine and methionine. In industrialised countries these compounds are additives for feed, produced by bacteria in an energy-consuming process, being subsequently converted to meat. WHO suggests that by increasing the plant’s sulphur-containing amino acid contents by a factor of eight, malnutrition of humans could be avoided. Screening natural varieties with respect to amino acid contents revealed that none of the current grown elite cultivars have the potential to contribute to solve this dilemma. Following this idea, key genes of the sulphur assimilation pathway (serine acetyl transferase) and methionine biosynthesis (cystathionine gamma- synthase) were expressed in transgenic rice plants. In both cases the projects were successfully resulting in increases in contents of free cysteine and methionine up to 4fold and 15fold, respectively, and even the protein-bound methionine content was increased up to 2.5fold. Thus, it was possible to approach the WHO given threshold for methionine. Moreover, the increase in cysteine led to an increase in glutathione, a known compound reducing oxidative stress in plants and thus combining different beneficial properties for nutritional value as well as plant and human health.
- 211. 211 The synthesis of chlorogenic acid in artichoke: comparison of two newly isolated hqt genes Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus L.) is used not only as an edible vegetable, but also for its beneficial medical properties. Various potential pharmacodynamic effects have been observed in vitro for mono- and dicaffeoylquinic acids (e.g. chlorogenic acid, cynarin), caffeic acid and flavonoids (e.g. luteolin-7-O-glucoside) which are the main phenolic constituents of artichoke extracts. The polyphenolic fractions are abundant in artichoke plant organs and bioavailable to humans by oral consumption. The aim of our study is to acquire new knowledge in the metabolism of caffeoylquinic acids in artichoke, by isolating and studying the genes involved in the synthesis of these compounds. In particular, we are focusing on the genes coding for HQT (hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA quinate:hydroxycinnamoyl transferase), a BAHD acyl transferase synthesing chlorogenic acid in other plants. We report on the isolation and characterization of two full-length hqt cDNAs from artichoke leaves. These sequences showed a high level of similarity to hqt genes from other plants. A phylogenetic analysis of the putative HQT protein sequences from artichoke together with other acyltransferase sequences, showed that the two artichoke HQTs cluster together and belong to a bigger group of HQT-encoding genes from tobacco, tomato, potato, and coffee. On the other hand, the sequences of another acyl transferase, HCT, form a separate cluster. The two artichoke hqt cDNAs were cloned in an S-TAG vector and expressed in E. coli, to confirm HQT activity. To better characterize their biochemical properties, kinetic analyses were performed using the recombinant HQT proteins with different substrates. Moreover, gene expression was evaluated by real time PCR in leaves and flower heads of some genotypes belonging to the IGV artichoke collection. This contribution was partially funded by EU Project AGRI GEN RES 063, CYNARES P 113 Rosalinda D’Amore* Jie Luo‡ Domenico Pignone* Cathie Martin‡ Gabriella Sonnante* * Institute of Plant Genetics, CNR, Bari, Italy ‡ John Innes Centre, Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK Gabriella Sonnante Institute of Plant Genetics (IGV) National Research Council (CNR) Via Amendola, 165/A 70126 Bari, Italy gabriella.sonnante@igv.cnr.it
- 212. 212 P 114 Silvia Minoia* Giuseppina Mosca* Angelo Petrozza* Giovanni Sozio* Abdelhafid Bendahmane¶ Francesco Cellini* Filomena Carriero* * Metapontum Agrobios SS Jonica 106, km 448,2 75010 Metaponto (MT), Italy ¶ URGV/CNRS-URGV 2, rue Gaston Crémieux CP5708 91057 Evry cedex, France. Silvia Minoia Metapontum Agrobios SS Jonica 106, km 448,2 75010 Metaponto (MT), Italy sminoia@hotmail.com TILLING feasibility in Citrus as tool for genetic crop improvement Session: Improving plant product quantity and quality Food and feed Citrus is one of the most important and widely grown fruit crop throughout the word. It is an economically valuable fruit crop plant and a source of important health and nutrition benefits to people. Nevertheless, the citrus has a low level impact of traditional breeding approaches to genetic improvement mainly of its reproductive biology that generate a slowing breeding cycles and of the cost of large population caused by the large size and the slow development of the plants. In the present study we report our preliminary data on the TILLING feasibility in Citrus as tool for genetic improvement. TILLING technique combines chemical mutagenesis with high-throughput methods for point mutation discovery and is being used successfully in a large number of species. In a pilot experiment we mutagenized citrus seeds (cv Carrizo) with two different concentrations (0,5% and 0,7%) of the chemical mutagen EMS (ethyl methane sulfonate). DNA of 24 M1 plants (14 and 10 plants from 0,5% EMS and 0,7% EMS respectively) was extracted and AFLP analysis were performed to estimate the mutation frequency and thus the efficiency of EMS treatment. Our molecular data showed that the EMS doses utilized for producing our mutant plant material can be used to produce a large citrus TILLING population. A citrus TILLING population will be useful for functional studies and for analysing key genes involved in physiological processes of high agronomical relevance. The identification of new allelic variants will provide resource both for basic functional genomic research and commercial crop improvement.
- 213. 213 Exploiting the diversity of form in Miscanthus for increased Biomass Session: New products: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? There is an urgent need to breed new, higher yielding Miscanthus varieties in order to deliver lignocellulosic biomass whilst improving land use efficiency. Understanding the genetic control of biomass performance traits is of vital importance for the acceleration of breeding higher yielding varieties. Plant architecture is important for biomass yield and is under genetic control. IBERS curates a unique and comprehensive collection of Miscanthus which includes plants with very divergent architecture including M. sinensis which is compact with numerous thin stems and M. sacchariflorus which is tall with few thicker stems. A thorough phenotypic characterisation of this UK Miscanthus collection is being carried out at IBERS in order to identify desirable idiotypes. The European Miscanthus Improvement (EMI) project demonstrated that no single genotype performed optimally at all latitudes in Europe and so different genotypes will be required for different locations. Linking genotype to phenotype and generating molecular markers for desirable traits will accelerate the breeding cycle and thereby allow more rapid development of lines adapted for their environments and end usage. To this end orthologues of candidate genes encoding morphological characteristics are being identified and cloned in Miscanthus with the aid of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries, and association studies being performed to link genotype to phenotype. Alleles conferring improved characteristics for biomass will be identified and made available for use in the Miscanthus breeding programme based at IBERS. P 115 Kerrie Farrar Paul Robson John Clifton Brown Iain Donnison Kerrie Farrar Institute of Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences (IBERS), Aberystwyth University, Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, UK kkf@aber.ac.uk
- 214. 214 P 116 Dana Barba Monica Enache Dana Barba University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Faculty of Biotechnology, Bd. Marasti 59 Bucharest, sector 1, Romania dana_barba_bioteh@hotmail.com A handy techniques for a promising biofuel crop Session: New products: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Miscanthus is a genus of “woody” rhizomatous grasses, growing to 3-4 m in height. It produces new shoots annually which produce erect, robust stems and appear similar to thin bamboo cane, having a diameter of approximately 10 mm. Most Miscanthus species are native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, with one species (M. sinensis Anderss. (Chinese silvergrass)) extending north into temperate eastern Asia. The sterile hybrid between M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus, Miscanthus giganteus (Giant Chinese Silver Grass), has been trialed as a biofuel in Europe since the early 1980s. Its dry weight annual yield can reach 25t/ha. These high yields prove that this Miscanthus has the potential to make an important contribution to the energy generation from renewable sources. Commercial generation projects using biomass power have now commenced around the UK and EU with more due to come on stream over the next few years. However, it doesn’t produce a viable seed. In order to propagate large numbers of plantlets for several thousand acres of biomass to be planted, tissue culturing is being used and some companies have already patented some exclusive micropropagation processes. We present here a simple micropropagation method that was used successfully with the ornamental M. sinensis “Yakushima” for commercial purposes. It is hoped that this method could also be tested for the giant variety.
- 215. 215 Oligolignol profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana cell cultures Session: New products: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Lignin amount and composition impact on a range of industrial processes, among others the production of paper and bio-ethanol. Removing lignin from lignocellulosic plant tissues is a laborious and expensive process. Understanding how lignification occurs can open new perspectives for the genetic engineering or selection of plant varieties with improved processing properties. Lignin is present in the secondary cell wall. It confers rigidity to the plant and allows the transport of water and nutrients. In angiosperms, lignin is mainly composed of two aromatic units, guaiacyl (G) and syringyl (S), that are derived from the monolignols coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol. Upon their oxidation, these monomers couple with each other and with lignin in a combinatorial way, yielding a variety of interunit linkages of which the main types are β-O-4, β-β and β-5.These linkages are present as β-aryl-ethers, resinol and phenylcoumaran bonding structures. Although lignin polymerisation is well understood, still little is known about the transport of the monolignols to the cell wall and the initiation of the polymerisation process, including so-called lignin nucleation sites. A. thaliana cultures that produce coniferyl alcohol and coniferyl alcohol- based oligomers were used to gain a better understanding about the initial stages of the lignification process. The advantage of cell cultures is that cells and cell culture medium can be analysed separately. We have profiled the oligolignol composition across the life cycle of these cell cultures analysing the medium. Maximal oligolignol concentrations were observed at day 7 after subculture. Analysing the composition of the oligolignol pool at day 7 lead to the following observations: β-aryl ether and phenylcoumaran bonding structures were predominant, and the few β-β linkages observed were lariciresinol-like instead of resinol bonding structures. These lariciresinol bonding structures can only arise following the reduction of resinol bonds. This indicates that post-coupling enzymatic reactions occur or that sufficient amounts of reductantia are present in the culture medium to perform the reaction purely chemically. Coniferin, the glucosylated form of coniferyl alcohol and the suggested transport form of coniferyl alcohol through the plasma membrane, was also detected opening perspectives to study the transport of monolignols to the cell wall. Finally, some dimers and trimers with units derived from ferulic acid were detected. These units were sometimes further derivatized. These derivates might hint at lignin initiation points and, therefore, are further structurally analysed. P 117 Noemi Nemeth-Iuhasz Kris Morreel RubenVanholme Laurens Pauwels Geert Goeminne Bart Ivens AlainGoossens Eric Messens Wout Boerjan Noemi Nemeth-Iuhasz VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent University Technologiepark 927, 9052 Gent, Belgium noiuh@psb.ugent.be
- 216. 216 P 118 Ana Alonso-Simón Jens Øbro William G.T. Willats Ana Alonso-Simón Department of Biosciences, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes vej 5, DK-2200, Copenhagen, Denmark. ana.alonso@bio.ku.dk Analysis of Brachypodium distachyon cell walls and comparison with other Poales using novel glycan microarrays Session: New products: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Brachypodium distachyon has been proposed as a model plant for grasses, due to its small genome size (123 Mbp, comparable to Arabidopsis thaliana), relatively short life cycle (about 15 weeks) and relatively small size at maturity. In addition, Brachypodium is a member of the Poaceae family and Pooideae subfamily, which also includes grasses as Lolium perenne and some important temperate cereals, such as Hordeum vulgare, Triticum aestivum and Secale cereale. As well as the interest of these species as forage grasses and in the food industry, the lignocellulosic biomass derived from them is considered an important potential bioethanol feedstock. However the cell walls of these plants are recalcitrant to enzymatic degradation to fermentable sugars. A greater understanding of the detailed composition and architecture of Pooideae cell walls may provide a basis for improved energy crop design and more effective down stream processing. We have analyzed for the first time cell walls from different organs of Brachypodium distachyon, and compared them to other Poales counterparts. We have used a recently developed technique, Comprehensive Microarray Polymer Profiling (CoMPP, Moller et al., 2007), which combines the specificity of monoclonal antibodies with the high-throughput capacity of microarrays. As expected, we found Brachypodium cell walls to be similar to those from wheat, barley and Miscanthus. They contain relatively low levels of both non-esterified and esterified pectins and arabinan and galactan side were detected in all studied organs. The main hemicelluloses were xylans and arabinoxylans, abundant in both leaves and stems. Some cell wall glycoproteins (extensins and AGPs) were also present in all the organs studied. Moller, I., Sørensen, I., Bernal, A.J., Blaukopf, C., Lee, K., Øbro, J., Pettolino, F., Roberts, A., Mikkelsen, J.D., Knox, J.P., Bacic, A. and Willats, W.G. (2007) High-throughput mapping of cell-wall polymers within and between plants using novel microarrays. The Plant Journal, 50(6),1118-1128
- 217. 217 Microbial fuel cell produces electricity from plant root exudates. Session: New products: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? The world needs sustainable, efficient, and renewable energy production. We present a new concept, the Plant Microbial Fuel Cell (plant-MFC), for direct and continuous in situ conversion of solar energy into electricity. MFC’s convert chemical energy, available in a bio-convertible substrate, directly into electricity. Under anaerobic conditions the bacteria in the bio-anode function as a catalyst to oxidize the substrate into electrons and protons and CO2. The electrons are transferred to the anode and the protons diffuse through a proton-permeable membrane to the cathode compartment. In the plant-MFC the plant is placed with its root system in de bio-anode of the MFC close to the electrogenic bacteria. The plant roots produce exudates, mainly consisting of organic acids and carbohydrates in the bio-anode. The exudates are then converted into electrical energy by the bacteria. The proof of principle of the Plant-MFC was demonstrated using Reed Manna grass (Glyceria maxima). Eight MFC’s were constructed. In six MFC’s a Reed Manna grass plant was placed in the bio-anode; the other two MFC’s did not contain a plant and served as control. An incubation period of about 60 days proved necessary to start the Plant-MFC. After this period the Reed manna grass all six Plant-MFC’s produced electricity during a period of 40 days with a maximum production of 67mW per m2 anode surface. The MFC’s without a plant did not produce electricity. Based on these data we estimate that the Plant-MFC has a potential production of 21 GJ electrical power ha-1 year-1 in Europe. This makes the Plant-MFC a good candidate as a novel sustainable bioenergy source characterized by (1) non-destructive, in situ harvesting of solar energy; (2) energy efficient carbohydrate production by plants; (3); and (4) carbon neutral and low nutrient input operation. P 119 Jan Snel David Strik Bert Hamelers Cees Buisman Jan F.H. Snel Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture, Bornsesteeg 65 P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. jan.snel@wur.nl
- 218. 218 P 120 Constantin-Horia Barbu Camelia Sand Mihai-Radu Pop Cristina Moise Mihaela Stoica Bianca-Petronela Pavel Constantin-Horia Barbu “Lucian Blaga” University Bd. Victoriei 10 550024 Sibiu, Romania horiab@rdslink.ro Biofuels and polluted soils – a double winning combination Session: New products: Plant based biofuels: how to improve them? Due to the absence of protective measures since many decades, soils in many areas in Romania are polluted with heavy metals (especially Cd and Pb) originating from smelters. Because after December 1989 land was given back to the former owners, without anybody carrying about their pollution state, the new farmers are supposed to cultivate and earn their living on these soils, with all the incumbent health risks. A possible solution is to cultivate these soils with non-edible plants having enough commercial value to allow the farmer to sell it and buy clean food. Among these plants are sunflower, rapes and soybeans, for Biodiesel production, and short rotation coppice plants (salix and miscanthus) to be used as biomass in cogeneration plants. Because soils in most cases are acidic, the use of red mud is a feasible solution in both increasing the pH value, and for retention of heavy metals in soils. The paper presents the encouraging first results (in terms of cultivation possibilities, yields and amount of heavy metals in plant parts and products) of our researches in Copsa Mica area, considered to be one of the most polluted in Europe, as well as our further intentions to cultivate “plants for the future”.
- 219. 219 Seed-specific expression of influenza A (H5N1) hemagglutinin subunit HA1 in barley for oral bird immunization Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Since the year 2002 several outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus killed millions of wild and domestic birds in Asia. Single human fatalities caused by the H5N1 strain have also been reported recently. The H5N1 strain has spread further, and animals infected by the virus, probably through contact with migratory birds, have been found in Europe. The development of a cost-effective vaccine for the immunization of both domestic and wild birds is mandatory. Furthermore, control of H5N1 through vaccination in the avian population will greatly reduce the risk of virus transfer across species. It is of great interest that a major outbreak in humans, as was observed in 1918, will be avoided. Our strategy to generate a vaccine against the H5N1 influenza A virus is based on the expression of hemagglutinin HA1 subunit, a major virus surface antigen, in plant tissue that may be used for massive oral immunization of birds. Various transient and stable plant expression systems were tested. Among those, a codon- optimized HA1 antigen driven by the seed specific α-gliadin promoter of wheat resulted in the highest expression. Representative molecular and biochemical analyses of transgenic barley have been performed. Western blot analysis revealed a particularly high expression of HA1 in the seeds of two out of 84 transgenic lines. Immunological evaluations of recombinant H5N1 hemagglutinin antigen are in progress. P 121 Goetz Hensel Astrid Bruchmueller Cornelia Marthe Carola Bollmann Bjoern Sode Stefanie Goedeke Nikolai Borisjuk Robert Brodzik Hilary Koprowski Jochen Kumlehn Goetz Hensel Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Corrensstraße 3 D-06466 Gatersleben, Germany hensel@ipk-gatersleben.de
- 220. 220 P 122 Jaroslav Matoušek*† Tomáš Podzimek*‡ Lidmila Orctová* Josef Škopek* Josef Matoušek†† *Biology Centre CAS v.v.i. IPMB, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice 370 05, Czech Republic. †Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic ‡Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, ICT Prague, Technicka 5, Prague 6, 16628, Czech Republic. †† Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, CAS v.v.i., Rumburská 89, Liběchov 277 21, Czech Republic. Jaroslav Matoušek Biology Centre CAS v.v.i. Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Branišovská 31, České Budějovice 370 05, Czech Republic. jmat@umbr.cas.cz Preparation of recombinant nucleases with anti- cancerogenic potential, their molecular analysis and production in plants for medicinal utilization Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Plant nuclease I (bifunctional nuclease) (E.C.3.1.30.x) is an unspecific endonuclease, which belongs to enzymes capable of degrading double and single stranded nucleic acids. These enzymes have been reported to comprise major nuclease activity in number of plant species. It plays various functions in plants including induction of senescence and apoptosis. Previously we described anticancerogenic effects of plant bifunctional nucleases (Souček, J. e.a. Neoplasma 53:402, 2006; Lipovová, P. e.a. Neoplasma 55:158, 2008). Antiproliferative effects were reached at approximately ten-times lower protein concentrations in comparison to studied animal RNases and simultaneously, side-effects were much lower than caused by animal RNases. This makes plant nucleases perspective anticancerogenic agents that could be, similarly to onconase, selected for clinical trials in the future. This is especially true for new recombinant TBN1 nuclease that we originally cloned from petioles of viroid-infected tomato showing plant “paralyzing” pathogenicity (Matoušek, J. e.a. Biol. Chem. 388: 1, 2007). TBN1 exhibited practically no immunosuppressivity as assayed in CLM in vitro system, as well as low ebryotoxicity and aspermatogenicity in comparison to, for instance, widely investigated animal BS-RNase. Recently we cloned other homologues of plant bifunctional nucleases, HBN1 from H. lupulus pollen and ABN1 from A. brassica leaves and developed in planta system for nuclease production. While all these recombinant enzymes seem be toxic to be produced in bacteria, leaf infiltration system including suppressors of PTGS appears to be very efficient for large-scale nuclease production. Nuclease is extracted four-five days post infiltration before apoptotic processes inactivate proteosynthesis. Usually 10 mg of ultra pure TBN1 nuclease can be prepared from 100 g of infiltrated N. benthamiana leaves; this is amount of enzyme TBN1 that completely hydrolyzes 1.2 g of highly polymerized dsDNA or ssRNA to mononucleotides within one minute at 37o C. In planta-produced nucleases appear to be modified posttranslationally (PM), at least by N-glycosylation. For instance, mature TBN1 contains about 14% of sugar having 36 kDa. It is probable that PM of nuclease that occurs in plants leads to an improvement of its anticancerogenic properties, similarly as found for additional N-glycosylation of onconase. In order to verify this possibility, we aim to modify cloned bifunctional nucleases by site-directed mutagenesis, cDNA shuffling, as well as by in vivo PM using the “leaf factory” system. The work is supported by GACR 521/06/1149, ASCR 1QS500510558 and AV0Z50510513 projects.
- 221. 221 Elaboration of the technological procedure and chemical composition of a special confectionary product with enhanced antioxidant activity Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Antioxidants are essential in the neutralisation of the reactive oxygen species and free radicals. The intake of functional food products with enhanced antioxidant content, antioxidants might be regarded as efficient tools for the prevention of chronic diseases. The object of our research was to develop a new functional biscuit with enhanced antioxidant-activity. Improved methods were applied for the precise establishment of the antioxidant- content of biscuits was prepared with lysine and the effect of diverse saccharides on the activity was studied as well. By the reaction of carbohydrates and proteins Maillard-reaction occurs, compounds with high antioxidant-activity are produced. Heating of saccharides with lysine at diverse temperatures for various times were accomplished. Functional biscuits were prepared with lysine and four different kinds of saccharides: saccharose, fructose, glucose, isosweet. Two methods were chosen for our studies out of the many well known methods that are suitable for determining antioxidants. FRAP (ferric reducing ability of plasma) assay is based on the reduction of Fe(III) ions to Fe(II) by the antioxidants. DPPH (diphenylpicryl-hydrazyl) is a stable free radical with purple colour which intensity decrease with the antioxidant- activity. Improvement of the methods was accomplished in order to the reach optimal applicability for accurate estimation of the antioxidant activity in distinctive food matrices. To achieve the highest effectivity variable compositions of the reaction liquid as well as the ratio of the reaction solutions (FRAP/DPPH) and the antioxidant samples were optimised. The following conditions proved to be the most effective in terms of producing the most appropriate calibration and detectability: FRAP reagent consist of 25.0ml buffer solution, 2.5ml FeCl3-solution, 2.5ml TPTZ-solution. 2.9ml FRAP reagent was added to 0.1ml sample having antioxidant activity. In case of DPPH the ratio of the reagent to the sample was 1:5. The methods were tested on functional biscuits having different saccharide content. The antioxidant activity was the highest in case of the biscuit prepared with glucose and isosweet and fructose (1500-1700mg ascorbic acid/kg), saccharose containing biscuit was less pronounced, and the lowest values were measured in case of biscuits without lysine (0.016-0.034mg ascorbic acid/kg). One peace of biscuit (approx.3g) has as antioxidant activity as 0.048-0.0140mg ascorbic acid has, while the activity of one biscuit prepared with lysine and glucose was equal with 12.687mg ascorbic acid. Enhanced antioxidant-content of the developed new functional biscuits prepared with lysine have been confirmed by the improved methods, so they might play a considerable role in health protection and prevention of several chronic diseases. P 123 Diána Virág Attila Kiss Diána Virág Eszterházy Károly University, EGERFOOD Regional Knowledge Centre, Leányka street 6. 3300, Eger, Hungary viragdia@ektf.hu
- 222. 222 P 124 Attila Kiss János Petrusán Attila Kiss Eszterházy Károly University, EGERFOOD Regional Knowledge Centre, Leányka street 6. 3300, Eger, Hungary attkiss@ektf.hu Development of a new functional food product and novel methods to reveal the thermal degradation mechanism and the prebiotic effect of inulin Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Inulin-type fructans can be found in more than 36.000 plant species and they are among the most abundantly occurring carbohydrates in nature. Inulin is a polydisperse substance with linear chains of fructose monomers having a terminal glucose moiety. The number of monomers is typical for the plant comprising inulin, like chicory root with an average degree of polymerisation (DP) of 10. Major goal of our study was to develop a new, inulin-containing functional food (biscuit) by applying novel analytical and microbiological methods to map both heat degradation pathway and the change of prebiotic impact of inulin. Relevance of the studies is enhanced by the fact that major prebiotic effect might be attributed to fructans depending substantially on the degree of polymerization. The basic principle of the developmemt of the new functional foodstuff is that thermal degradation of inulin results in the formation of degradates activating 5 times more the Bifidobacterium species than the non-treated inulin. Inulin has been added the pastry and the dependancy of microbiological activity on the time-interval of thermal treatment was examined in cases of E. coli, Bifidobacterium and Enterococcus. 12 min of treatment at 190o C was the most efficient in order to acquire the most pronounced prebiotic effect. Subsequent to the treatment 90% of the original amount of inulin mixed into the pastry has been decomposed leading to a new product (biscuit) with multiplicated bacterium activating effect. The biscuit’s prebiotic impact exceeds significantly that of a normal product without inulin. Comparison of distinctive extraction and sample preparation protocols has been performed. Throughout our studies inulin was acquired from Chicorium intybus L. (chicory), Dahlia species (dahlia), Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke), and the samples were treated at 8 different temperatures for 9 distinctive time periods. Thermal treatments were carried out from 150o C up to 230o C (10o C increments each sample) to characterise thermal degradation of the inulin, and determine all the yielded oligo- and polymers. By now the polymerisation degree of inulin’s decomposition products was determined just up to DP12 (Ronkart,S.N.2007). By means of HPLC-ELS- MS technique spectra of oligo-, and polymers deriving from inulin’s heat degradation were obtained ranging from DP3 up to DP31. We also identified and isolated various fructan oligomers as degradates. From alteration of retention times and molecular weights exact number of fructose units might be concluded, thus the entire decomposition pathway was revealed. Major output of our study is that a new functional foodstuff with enhanced prebiotic effect might be produced by the application and thermal treatment of inulin. The formed fructans may be analysed directly, without prior enzymatic or chemical hydrolysis with the application of simple sample preparation procedures and HPLC-ELS technique.
- 223. 223 A toolkit for engineering multi-enzyme pathways into higher plants Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Despite growing interest in the use of plants as green factories for the production of high-value bioactive compounds, the de novo engineering of multi-enzyme pathways in plants has been limited to a few success stories. The lack of a rapid in planta system for assessing functionality of expression constructs and for determining an optimal transgene pool has hampered engineering projects. Glucosinolates are defence-related plant secondary metabolites whose cancer-preventive and antibacterial activities promise their future use as therapeutic agents. The biosynthesis of glucosinolates from amino acids involves at least five enzymatic steps. Several intermediates in the pathway are highly reactive or toxic, which stresses the need for coordinated expression of the genes. By using two 2A-polycistronic open reading frames (coding for five enzymes altogether) and transient co-transformation of Nicotiana benthamiana, we have produced a glucosinolate in a heterologous organism for the first time. The identification of an accumulating by-product – evidence of a metabolic bottleneck – led to screening of candidate genes for a missing activity. Co-expression of an uncharacterized gene led to a 17-fold increase in glucosinolate accumulation and a drastic decrease in accumulation of the by-product. Incorporation of the new gene into one of the two 2A-polycistronic open reading frames (now coding for a total of 6 enzymes) gave similar results in terms of resolution of the bottleneck. The combination of methods used provides a toolkit for engineering multi- enzyme pathways into plants. The toolkit allows rapid in planta assessment of functionality of expression constructs as well as fast optimization of a transgene pool – including screening of candidate genes for desired biosynthetic activities – before the stable transfer to a host plant. P 125 Fernando Geu-Flores Morten T. Nielsen Carl E. Olsen Mohammed S. Motawia Barbara A. Halkier Fernando Geu-Flores Plant Biochemistry Laboratory and VKR Centre for Proactive Plants Departament of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, University of Copenhagen, 40 Thorvaldsensvej 1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark feg@life.ku.dk
- 224. 224 P 126 Iliana Ionkova* Elisabeth Fuss† *Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia, Dunav Str. 2, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria †Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Institut für Entwicklungs- und Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Universitätsstr. 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany Iliana Ionkova Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia, Dunav Str. 2, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria ionkova@pharmfac.acad.bg Ariltetralin lignans from in vitro cultures of Linum tauricum ssp. linearifolium and their cytotoxic activity Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Lignans are a large class of phenolic compounds characterized by the coupling of two phenylpropane (C6C3) units. This group of natural products has drawn the attention due to their tumour-inhibitory activity. Podophyllotoxin is the most used lignan. The strong cytotoxic effect of podophyllotoxin resulted in the introduction of 3 clinically useful medicines: Etoposide, Teniposide and Etopophos. In continuation of our research on lignans in Linum species, we have established several callus and suspension cultures from single sterile seedlings from L. tauricum ssp.linearifolium, endemic species in the Balkan area and checked for the occurrence of lignans. The two main lignans: podophyllotoxin (PTOX) and 6-methoxypodophyllo- toxin (MPTOX) were identified in the cultures. Since PTOX is the preferred precursor for the semi-synthesis of anti-cancer drugs like etoposide and etopophos®, the accumulation of predominantly PTOX in this subspecies is especially interesting. The both compounds, isolated for the first time from the intact plant were identified by HPLC, UV and 1H NMR. As a result of more than 3 years maintenance of the cultures, and optimisations of growth media, a stable growth and production of the both compounds was achieved. Suspension cultures synthesized 5.38 mg/g dw PTOX and 1.7 mg/g dw MPTOX respectively. The antiproliferative action of the extracts was tested against malignant cell lines (the chronic myeloid leukemia – derived cell lines K-562 and LAMA- 84, the Hodgkin lymphoma-derived HD-MY-Z and the human urinary bladder carcinoma-derived EJ cells) with etoposide as a positive control. The tested extracts reduced the viability of tumor cells in a concentration- dependent manner, whereby their relative potency was comparable or even superior to that of the referent drug etoposide. The extract from L. tauricum ssp. linearifolium showed a moderate cytotoxicity to all tested cell lines with IC50 in the range from 0,031 to 0,912 μg/ml. Financial support from Ministry of Education and Science, Sofia, Bulgaria (Grant TK-L- 1607/06 I. Ionkova) is acknowledged
- 225. 225 In planta tailoring of pectin properties for application on medical devices Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products The term pectin covers a divers group of associated galacturonic-acid rich polysaccharides that are major components of the plant cell wall. Pectin is composed of three major polysaccharide domains: homogalacturonan (HGA), rhamnogalacturonan I (RG I) and rhamnogalacturonan II (RG II). In the European research project Pecticoat (www.pecticoat.net) enzymatically modified RG I was used as an innovative nanocoating for medical devices. It was shown that cell attachment and spreading on the surface of the device can successfully be modulated by grafting surfaces with the different types of RG I obtained after the various enzymatic treatments. An alternative to the enzymatic treatment would be to modify the RG I structure in planta. At the start of the project, transgenic potato lines expressing pectin modifying enzymes were available. They contain genes encoding one of the following enzymes: rhamnogalacturonan lyase, endo- 1,4-beta-D-galactanase, endo-alpha-1,5-L-arabinanase, beta-galactosidase, UDP-Glc 4-epimerase and pectin acetyl esterase. These enzymes influence the RG I backbone, RG I side chain composition, acetyl esterification or the availability of nucleotide-sugars necessary for pectin biosynthesis. Development of new types of potato pectins is performed by crossing the available potato lines, thereby combining the action of two pectin modifying enzymes in a single plant. Crosses were performed and nearly all combinations were successful, yielding over 17000 seeds. The F1 offspring was characterised both molecularly and biochemically. Results of the phenotypic characterisation will be presented. As an alternative, expression of two pectin modifying enzymes in equimolar ratio was attempted by transformation of a fusion protein of galactanase and arabinanase into potato. The work will result in novel pectic biomaterials that can be applied in medical devices and other products. P 127 Katarina Cankar* Marcel Toonen* Bernhard Borkhardt† Peter Ulvskov† Rene Verhoef ‡ Henk Schols‡ Richard Visser* * Wageningen UR, Department of Plant Breeding, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands † Wageningen UR, Department of Food Chemistry, Bomenweg 2, 6703 HD Wageningen, The Netherlands ‡ University of Aarhus, Biotechnology Group, Thorvaldsensvej 40, DK-1871 Frederiksberg, Denmark Katarina Cankar Wageningen UR, Department of Plant Breeding, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands katja.cankar@wur.nl
- 226. 226 P 128 Margherita Festa Luca Militano Francesco Sala Barbara Basso Margherita Festa Department of Biology University of Milan Via Celoria 26 I-20133 Milan, Italy margherita.festa@unimi.it Modification and improvement of a plasmid vector for the production of antigenic molecules in GM tobacco, for veterinary use Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products The production of important molecules (as subunit vaccines) in plants is increasingly considered for relevant advantages: low costs of production, purification and delivery, no risks of contamination by pathogens and high scale production, but improvement and enhancement of transformation techniques are needed. MAR/SARs (Matrix/Scaffold Attachment Regions) have been reported as a network of proteinaceous fibrils that permeates the nucleus and organizes chromatin into a series of topologically isolated loop domains of 5-200 kb. These sequences may influence the structure of transgenes and their expression possibly reducing or eliminating some forms of gene silencing. Our research is addressed at the production of plant derived antigens to be used in veterinary prophylaxis. In this field, the optimisation of transgene expression is crucial, also because of the necessity of plant containment during the whole cultivation period. In particular, we sub-cloned Rb7, a MAR sequence from Nicotiana tabacum,, in the binary vector pAMPAT, inside t-DNA close to LB and RB terminations, in its two possible orientations. The vector expression cassette carries a 511 bp portion of Fib, encoding Fibrinogen Binding Protein, from Staphylococcus aureus, under the control of 35SS constitutive promoter. The Fib protein fragment was proved to be effective against S. aureus mastitis in dairy cattle. Nicotiana tabacum, var. Samsun was transformed via Agrobacterium tumefaciens with the four constructs carrying Rb7 elements in all their possible combinations. Statistical analysis was performed after four different experiments, showing an enhanced transformation efficiency for MAR containing constructs (higher shoot number and shorter shooting time). Molecular and immunological analysis on transformed plants are now in progress, to define the transgene copy number and the resulting protein expression level.
- 227. 227 Improved immunogenicity of plant-derived vaccines against RHD Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Vaccines against the Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), a highly infectious pathogen of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), are commercially produced by experimentally infected rabbits. VP60, the only structural capsid protein of RHDV, seems to be an appropriate subunit vaccine and offers possibilities to develop an alternative vaccine production strategy. Transgenic plants demonstrate a promising production platform for veterinary vaccines, up to now a number of viral and bacterial antigens were expressed by higher plants -amongst others VP60 (1, 2). However, low expression levels and non satisfying immunogenicity of plant-derived VP60 prevented commercialisation of a plant-derived RHD-vaccine up to now. In order to develop suitable plant-derived RHD-vaccines we are studying the enhancement of the expression and the immunogenicity of VP60 in different plant species. Different genetic modifications (codon adaptation, integration of regulatory and putative stabilizing sequences, and the addition of the well- known adjuvant ctb) led to a higher expression level as well as to a tremendous enhancement of the immunogenicity of plant-derived VP60 (3). This was only possible in tobacco and pea but not in potato, carrot or canola. Tobacco and pea derived CTB::VP60 demonstrated at least a 100fold to 400fold higher immunogenicity compared to VP60-vaccines of potato tubers (1, 4). Rabbits immunised with pea-derived CTB::VP60 were fully protected against RHDV. 1. Castanon, S., Martin-Alonso, J. M., Marin, M. S., Boga, J. A., Alonso, P., Parra, F. & Ordas, R. J. (2002) Plant Science 162, 87-95. 2. Gil, F., Titarenko, E., Arcalis, E. & Escribano, J. M. (2006) Plant Biotechnology Journal 4, 135-143. 3. Mikschofsky, H., Hammer, M., Konig, P., Keil, G., Schirrmeier, H., and Broer, I. (2007) Plant made veterinary vaccines against RHD. Journal of Biotechnology 131:S44. 4. Castanon, S., Marin, M. S., Martin-Alonso, J. M., Boga, J. A., Casais, R., Humara, J. M., Ordas, R. J. & Parra, F. (1999) Journal of Virology 73, 4452-4455. P 129 Heike Mikschofsky* Horst Schirrmeier† Bodo Lange‡ Inge Broer* *University of Rostock Agricultural and Environmental Faculty, Agrobiotechnology Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 8 18059 Rostock Germany †Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald- Insel Riems, Germany ‡RIEMSER Arzneimittel AG An der Wiek 7 17493 Greifswald - Insel Riems Germany Heike Mikschofsky University of Rostock Agricultural and Environmental Faculty, Agrobiotechnology Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 8 18059 Rostock Germany Heike.Mikschofsky@uni- rostock.de
- 228. 228 P 130 Barbara Doyle Prestwich Eileen O Herlihy Patrick Cotter Ellen Fenlon Odiri Dede Ubogu Barbara Doyle Prestwich University College Cork Department of Zoology Ecology and Plant Science, Distillery Fields, North Mall, Cork Ireland b.doyle@ucc.ie A preliminary investigation into the efficacy of TransBacter strains for transforming food and ornamental crops Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Plant transformation techniques have been available to researchers for over twenty years. During that time patent associated cost issues have, due to their associated royalties and legal entanglements greatly hindered the application of biotechnology products to agriculture, medicine etc. and slowed innovation in this field. This is regrettable as biotechnology has a lot to offer in terms of solving some of the world’s problems (e.g Golden Rice). Intellectual property rights are a serious issue that need to be considered when embarking on any research program. In 2005 the non-profit biotech company CAMBIA demonstrated the transformation of Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Wisconsin 38 (tobacco) using non-Agrobacterium species (TransBacter strains). These TransBacter strains are available under an open source licence agreement to non-profit organisations and illustrates a new wave of thinking in this business (see www.cambia.org). In our lab a number of students are working on developing efficient transformation systems for 1) Solanum tuberosum, 2) Musa acuminate and 3) Pelargonium x hortorum using these TransBacter strains. To date we have recorded successes with all of the crops mentioned above using these alternative strains where transformation efficiency has reached almost 71 % for Pelargonium and similar efficiencies have been achieved for potato. Our study has major implications for the biotech industry where high transformation rates can be achieved when using non-Agrobacterium patent- free strains.
- 229. 229 Anti-inflammatory potential of thymol and carvacrol: cyclooxygenase-2 in vitro assay Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Phenolic monoterpenes are important constituents in essential oil of numerous aromatic plants and spices such as oregano (Origanum vulgare), marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) savory (Satureja thymbra), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and black cumin (Nigella sativa). These species are widely used in traditional medicine against various microbial diseases and gastrointestinal and inflammatory disorders (1). Many of their biological activities are attributed to oxygen derivatives of p-cymene, such as phenols (thymol and its isomer carvacrol) or quinones (thymoquinone, dithymoquinone). Antimicrobial, antiangiogenic, antioxidative and analgesic activity of these compounds was also confirmed by recent studies (1, 2, and 3). Inhibition of cyclooxygenase–1 (COX-1) and COX-2 isoform by mentioned quinones as well as thymol has been published (4). The comparison of inhibitory potential of phenolic monoterpenes thymol and carvacrol against COX-2 enzymatic activities is reported here. The anti-inflammatory assay was based on inhibition of conversion of [14 C] radioactive arachidonic acid to its products prostaglandins catalyzed by COX–2. The inhibition was monitored as concentration of prostaglandin E2 and D2 as the main products of the COX reaction in our conditions. The identification and quantification of the metabolites were performed by HPLC on C18 reversed phase column with an on-line radioactivity flow detector. IC50 values and percentage inhibition of different thymol and carvacrol concentrations were compared with standard COX-2 inhibitors indomethacin and NS-398 as control samples. Student’s two tailed t-test was used for calculation of statistical significance and IC50 values were determined by regression analysis. Carvacrol and thymol showed similar inhibition activity against COX-2. Difference between IC50 of both tested phenolic compounds was negligible (0.8 uM and 0.9 uM for carvacrol and thymol, respectively). Inhibitory effect of both phenols and control substances was almost identical; there was almost no difference between IC50 values of phenols, indomethacin (0.7 uM) and NS-398 (0.8 uM). These results indicate relatively strong inhibition of COX activity by both tested phenols, which is comparable with commercially used drugs. This work was supported by KJB400550705 and ME08070 project. References: 1. Ali, BH., Blunden, G. (2003) Phytother Res 17: 299-305. 2. Faleiro, L. et al. (2005) J Agr Food Chem 53: 8162-8168. 3. Sosa, S. et al. (2005) Phytomedicine 12: 271-27. 4. Marsik et al. (2005) Planta Med 71: 739-742. P 131 Petr Marsik Premysl Landa Marie Pribylova Ladislav Kokoska Tomáš Vaněk Tomáš Vaněk Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, v.v.i. and Research Institute of Crop Production, v.v.i., Rozvojova 263, 165 02 Prague 6 - Lysolaje, Czech Republic vanek@ueb.cas.cz
- 230. 230 P 132 Lenka Langhansova Petr Marsik Tomáš Vaněk Tomáš Vaněk Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Joint Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, v.v.i. and Research Institute of Crop Production, v.v.i., Rozvojova 263, 165 02 Prague 6 - Lysolaje, Czech Republic vanek@ueb.cas.cz Cultivation of ginseng root cultures in various bioreactor systems Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Different systems of large-scale cultivation of multiple ginseng adventitious roots of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer comparing to common cultivation in Erlenmayer flasks were established. Roots were isolated from plantlets regenerated from somatic embryos and cultivated separately in liquid media. Formation of adventitious roots was reached in liquid Schenk and Hildebrandt medium supplemented with 24.6 µM indole-3-butyric acid. The best saponin yields were achieved in partially or temporary immersion systems (22.81 ± 0.15 mg.g-1 of dry weight in “Mafe“ bioreactor, 22.33 ± 0.17 mg.g-1 in RITA TIS and 21.5510 ± 0.21 mg.g-1 in TIS – rocking bioreactor). Saponin production in standard conditions in Erlenmayer flasks placed on rotary shaker was considerably lower (11.63 ± 0.86 mg.g-1 of dry weight). However the best production of biomass was achieved in Erlenmayer flasks followed by RITA TIS and “Mafe” bioreactors. We suppose that close growth values in RITA and “Mafe” bioreactors are related to similar media mixing and aeration conditions in both systems. The same situation in biomass production was observed in “simple airlift bubble reactor” and LifeReactor™. In both, air is sparged below the root flowing afloat the bioreactor funnel or bag. We observed that ginseng adventitious roots are inhibited in growth by shaking and saponin production is decreased in immersed systems with low aeration of tissues. Higher biomass growth in standard cultivation system (rotatory shaker) can be explained by well-established adaptation of cultures after long-term cultivation in Erlenmayer flasks. We concluded that the most effective and promising system for production of ginsenosides in adventitious roots is RITA TIS or “Mafe” bioreactors - systems with high aeration (partially or temporary immersion) and stationary cultivation. This work was supported by KJB400550705 and ME08070 project.
- 231. 231 Bowman-Birk inhibitors from lentil: heterologous expression, characterization and anti-tumoral properties Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products The Bowman-Birk inhibitors (BBIs) represent the most widespread class of serine proteinase inhibitors, and are widely found in legume seeds as well as in other legume organs or other plant families. BBIs are generally double-headed and their inhibitory domains are associated primarily with inhibition of the digestive enzymes, trypsin and chymotrypsin. The BBI trypsin inhibitor site has the ability to inhibit animal digestive enzymes and has been associated with the negative effect on bioavailability of dietary proteins and protein digestibility. The role of the trypsin proteinase inhibitors in the plant seems to be related to plant defence from attacks by insects, pathogens and other predators. On the other hand, many reports highlight the involvement of BBI chymotrypsin inhibitor site to prevent or suppress carcinogen-induced transformation in vitro and carcinogenesis in animal model systems. As a result, soybean extracts enriched in BBI have attained investigational new drug status with the US Food and Drug Administration and is being studied in the prevention of cancer. Two BBI gene classes have been reported in lentil, one coding for a trypsin/trypsin inhibitor, the other encoding a trypsin/chymotrypsin inhibitor, the sequence of the latter one being incomplete at the 3’ end. In the present study, we report on the isolation of a complete cDNA sequence coding for lentil trypsin/chymotrypsin BBI. Two forms of the inhibitor were identified: a mature form, corresponding to the protein isolated from lentil seeds, and its C-terminal unprocessed form. In order to understand the implications of particular C-terminal amino acid residues for the specificity and potency of inhibition of key target proteases, the two forms were expressed in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. After purification, recombinant molecules were analysed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and their inhibitory activities evaluated, by means of enzymatic assays using specific substrates for trypsin or chymotrypsin. Ki both for trypsin and chymotrypsin were comparable to other Ki observed for BBI proteins. The ability of lentil trypsin/chymotrypsin BBI to modulate the viability of human colorectal adenocarcinoma HT29 cells in vitro was assessed. P 133 Pasqua Caccialupi* Luigi R. Ceci‡ Rosa A. Siciliano† Domenico Pignone* Alfonso Clemente †† Gabriella Sonnante* * Institute of Plant Genetics, CNR, Bari, Italy ‡ Institute for Biomembranes and Bioenergetics, CNR, Bari, Italy † Institute of Food Science and Technology, CNR, Avellino, Italy †† Estación Experimental del Zaidín, CSIC, Granada, Spain Pasqua Caccialupi Institute of Plant Genetics (IGV) National Research Council (CNR) Via Amendola, 165/A 70126 Bari, Italy lia.caccialupi@igv.cnr.it
- 232. 232 P 134 Alicia Romero1 Laura Williams1 Isabel Bronchalo1 Flora Sánchez2 Fernando Ponz2 1 : Agrenvec S.L. C/. Valle del Cares, s/n - 28669 Boadilla del Monte, Madrid - Spain 2 : CBGP-INIA. Autopista A-6, km 7 – 28040 Madrid, Spain. Fernando Ponz Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM- INIA). INIA. Autopista A-6, km 7 28040 Madrid – Spain. fponz@inia.es Production of foreign proteins bearing a functional signal peptide from a potyviral vector Session: New products: Biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals and other new products Plant viral vectors are increasingly being used for several purposes such as production of heterologous proteins, viral-induced gene silencing (VIGS) and phenocopying mutations. Viral vectors can be derived from viruses expressing their genes through subgenomic promoters or virus-encoded polyproteins. In the former case, the inclusion of a signal peptide (SP) intended for subcellular targeting of the heterologous protein generates a canonical mRNA, made from a (usually) duplicated subgenomic promoter. In the case of polyprotein-based vectors, proteolysis can be co- or post- translational, depending on the particular cleavage site and the proteinase involved, but in any case, the protein does not carry the signal peptide immediately after the initiation codon of its mRNA, as it normally happens in SPs recognized by Signal Recognition Particles (SRPs). We have tested if the inclusion of SPs right after a polyprotein cleavage site will lead to the efficient production of a protein matured from a SP-carrying pre-protein. We have found that this type of constructs can direct the production of an important amount of functional foreign protein if flanked by the foot-and- mouth disease virus 2A catalytic peptide, as exemplified by the production of horseradish peroxidase from a turnip mosaic virus vector. The results obtained will be presented and discussed.
- 233. 233 European Plant Science Organisation 4th EPSO Conference “Plants for Life” Toulon (Côte d’Azur), France 22 – 26 June 2008 www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm Participants list
- 234. 234
- 235. 235 Anne-Francoise Adam-Blondon UMR INRA-CNRS-Université d'Evry de Recherches en Génomique Végétale, Unit of Research on Plant Genomics, 2, rue Gaston Crémieux CP 5708 F-91057 EVRY cedex, France adam@evry.inra.fr Abstract: S 009 Birgitte K. Ahring Biogasol DTU Technical University of Denmark Bygning 204, st. tv., Kemitorvet 2800 Lyngby, Denmark bka@biogasol.com Abstract: S 048 Ana Alonso Simon University of Copenhagen Ole Maaløes Vej 5 2200 Copenhagen Denmark ana.alonso@bio.ku.dk Abstract: P 118 Anagnostis Argiriou The Centre for Research and technology, Institute of Agrobiot. (CERTH-INA) 6th KM Charilaou, Thermi Rd. Thermi 570 01 Thessaloniki, Greece argiriou@certh.gr Abstract: P 100 Patrick Armengaud University of Glasgow IBLS-BMB-Bower Building Glasgow G128QQ United Kingdom p.armengaud@bio.gla.ac.uk Abstract: P 038 Ana G.L. Assuncao Wageningen University Laboratory of Genetics Arboretumlaan 4 6703BD Wageningen The Netherlands ana.assuncao@wur.nl Abstract: P 101 Abdulkadir Aydogan Central research Institute for Field Crops PO Box 226 Ulus 06170 Ankara Turkey akadir602000@yahoo.com Abstract: P 109 Meriem Bahri Lab. SADV, UMR INRA/USTL 1281 Bat. SN2, 3th floor, Cité Scientifique 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq France meriem.bahri@ed.univ-lille1.fr Abstract: P 107 Ian Bancroft John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney, Norwich NR4 7UJ UK Ian.bancroft@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: S 039 Monica Banerjee Trends in Plant Science Elsevier Ltd 32 Jamestown Road NW1 7BY London, United Kingdom plants@elsevier.com Abstract: - Dana Barba University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest BD. Marasti 59, 71331 Bucharest Romania dana_barba_biotech@hotmail.com Abstract: P 116 Hélène Barbier-Brygoo CNRS, Institut du Végétal Avenue de la Terrasse 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette France helene.barbier-brygoo@isv.cnrs-gif.fr Abstract: - Constantin-Horia Barbu „Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu BD. Victoriei 10 550024 Sibiu Romania horiab@rdslink.ro Abstract: P 120 Bernhard Bauer Institute of Plant Nutrition University of Hohenheim Fruwirthstrasse 20 70599 Stuttgart, Germany bbauerdo@uni-hohenheim.de Abstract: P 034, S 028
- 236. 236 Jules Beekwilder Plant Research International, Wagenigen UR PO Box 16 6700 AA Wageningen The Netherlands jules.beehwilder@wur.nl Abstract: - José Pío Beltran CSIC – Instituto Biologia Molecular y Cellular de Plantas (UPV-CSIC) Campus de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia 46022 Valencia, Spain jbeltran@ibmcp.upv.es Abstract: - Reyes Benlloch Umeå Plant Science Center Dept of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SE-90187 Umeå, Sweden reyes.benlloch@genfys.slu.se Abstract: P 067 Pascale Bensman Sofiproteol 12 Avenue George V 75008 Paris France p.bensman@prolea.com Abstract: - Matthieu Besse University College Dublin School of Biology and Environmental Science 4 Dublin Ireland bessematthieu@hotmail.fr Abstract: P 059 Micheal Bevan Cell and Developmental Biology Dept John Innes Centre Norwich NR4 7UH UK michael.bevan@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: S 046 Raoul Bino Plant Science Group Wageningen UR PO Box 16 6700 AA Wageningen The Netherlands raoul.bino@wur.nl Abstract: - Sarah Blackford Education & Public Affairs Office Society for Experimental Biology Biology Department, Bailrigg House Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YE, UK s.blackford@lancaster.ac.uk Abstract: - Alex Boonman Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam The Netherlands A.Boonman@uva.nl Abstract: P 029 Albert Boronat Facultat de Biologia Universitat de Barcelona Av. Diagonal 645 08028 Barcelona, Spain aboronat@bq.ub.es Abstract: - Dirk Bosch Plant research International Droevendaalsesteeg 1 P.O. Box 16, NL-6700 AA Wageningen The Netherlands Dirk.Bosch@wur.nl Abstract: S 052 Karima Boudehri Biologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire INRA / UREF 71, Av Edouard Bourleaux BP 81 33883 Villenave-d'Ornon Cedex, France karima.boudehri@bordeaux.inra.fr Abstract: P 110 Brice Bourdenx CNRS UMR 5200 Université Victor Segalen, Bordeaux 2 146, rue Léo Saignat – Case 92 33076 Bordeaux Cédex, France brice.bourdenx@etud.u-bordeaux2.fr Abstract: P 024 Philippe Brabant Dpt. SVS/GEAP – AGROPARISTECH 16 Rue Claude Bernard F-75231 Paris cedex5 France brabant@moulon.inra.fr Abstract: -
- 237. 237 Maryse Brancourt INRA, UMR-INRA SADV n1281 Estrées-Mons BP 50136 80203 Péronne France mbrancourt@mons.inra.fr Abstract: S 049 Adina Breiman Department of Plant Sciences Tel Aviv University 69978 Tel Aviv Israel AdinaB@tauex.tau.ac.il Abstract: P 012 Holger Breithaupt EMBO reports Meterhofstrasse 1 69155 Heidelberg Germany holger.breithaupt@embo.org Abstract: - Jean Broadhvest Bayer BioScience NV Technologiepark 38 9052 Gent Belgium Jean.broadhvest@bayercropscience.com Abstract: - Inge Broer University of Rostock, AUF Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 8 18059 Rostock Germany Inge.broer@uni-rostock.de Abstract: S 051 Suvi Broholm University of Helsinki Dep. of Applied Biology Latokartanonkaari 7 / PO Box 27 Fin – 00014 Helsinki, Finland suvi.broholm@helsinki.fi Abstract: P 081 Bernhard Busch Max Planck Institut for Breeding Research Carl-von-Linné Weg 10 50829 Cologne Germany bbusch@mpiz-koeln.mpg.de Abstract: P 091 Dirk Büssis GABI Managing office, c/o Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Am Mühlenberg 1 14476 Potsdam OT Golm, Germany buessis@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: - Ed Byrne Centre for Crop Genetic Improvement Rothamsted Research Harpenden Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK ed.byrne@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: P 093 Marina Byzova Bayer BioScience NV Technologiepark 38 9052 Gent Belgium marina.byzova@bayercropscience.com Abstract: - Michel Caboche INRA Route de Saint Cyr 78026 Versailles France caboche@versailles.inra.fr Abstract: P 065 Pasqua Caccialupi National Reasearch Council (CNR) Institute of Plant Genetics (IGV) 165/A Via Amendola 70126 Bari, Italy lia.caccialupi@igv.cnr.it Abstract: P 133 Prisca Campanoni Philip Morris Products SA Quai Jeanrenauld 3 2000 Neuchatel Switzerland prisca.campanoni@pmintl.com Abstract: - Katarina Cankar Wageningen UR – Plant Breeding Droevendaalsesteeg 1 6708 PB Wageningen The Netherlands katja.cankar@wur.nl Abstract: P 127
- 238. 238 Sara Castelletti Department of Agroenvironmental Science and Technology, University of Bologna Viale Fanin, 44 40127 Bologna, Italy Sara.castelletti@gmail.com Abstract: P 006, P 053 Isabelle Caugant European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) Rue de l’Industrie 4 1000 Brussels Belgium isabelle.caugant@epsomail.org Abstract: - Felice Cervone Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale Universitá di Roma La Sapienza Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185 Roma, Italy felice.cervone@uniroma1.it Abstract: P 068 Hélène Chiron Génoplante Valor Tour Evry II, 523 Place des Terrasses 91034 Evry cedex France chiron@genoplante.com Abstract: - Jan Chojecki Plant Biosciences Limited Hill House, Norwich Research Park, Conley Lane NR4 7UH Norwich United Kingdom ajsc@pbltechnology.com Abstract: - Ulla Christensen Dep. of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Science, University of Copenhagen 40 Thorvaldsensvej 1871 Frederiksberg, Denmark ulc@life.ku.dk Abstract: P 092, P 096 Hung Chu The University of Hong Kong Room 7N04 Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building School of Biological Sciences HKU Pokfulam Road Hong Kong applechu@hkucc.nku.hk Abstract: P 072 Kathleen Clauss Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry Weinberg 3 06120 Halle (Saale) Germany kathleen.clauss@ipb-halle.de Abstract: P 089 Enrico Coen John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney Norwich NR4 7UH, UK Enrico.Coen@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: S 023 Martin Crespi Institut des Sciences du Végétal – CNRS 1 Avenue de la Terasse 91198 Gif sur Yvette France crespi@isv.cnrs-gif.fr Abstract: P 064 Julie Cullimore INRA – Lab. des Interactions Plantes Micro-organisme (LIPM), UMR CNRS/INRA 2594/441 31326 Castanet-Tolosan France Julie.Cullimore@toulose.inra.fr Abstract: - Rosalinda D'Amore C.N.R.-Istituto di Genetica Vegetale (Institute of Plant Genetics) Via Amendola, 165/A 70126 Bari, Italy linda.damore@igv.cnr.it Abstract: P 113 Susie Davenport Advanced Technologie (Cambridge) Ltd 210 The Science Park, Milton Road CB4 0WA Cambridge United Kingdom susie.davenport@atcbiotech.com Abstract: P 073 Bert De Boer VU University Amsterdam De Boenlaan 1085 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands bert.de.boer@falw.vu.nl Abstract: -
- 239. 239 Michiel de Both Keygene NV PO Box 216 6700 AE Wageningen The Netherlands mzi@keygene.com Abstract: P 045 Raffaele Dello Ioio Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Model Systems, Via dei Sardi 70 00185 Rome, Italy Raffaele.delloioio@gmail.com Abstract: S 025, P 070 Giulia De Lorenzo Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale Universitá di Roma La Sapienza Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185 Roma, Italy giulia.delorenzo@uniroma1.it Abstract: P 068 Domenico De Paola C.N.R.-Istituto di Genetica Vegetale (Institute of Plant Genetics) Via Amendola 165/A 70126 Bari, Italy Domenico.depaola@igv.cnr.it Abstract: - Rick DeRose Syngenta 3054 E. Cornwallis RD RTP 27709 United States rick.derose@syngenta.com Abstract: - Thierry Desnos CEA, Lab. de Biologie du Development des Plantes DSV/SBVME/UMR6191 13108 St Paul lez Durance France thierry.desnos@cea.fr Abstract: P 032 Upendra Kumar Devisetty University of Nottingham AES Division, Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough United Kingdom stxukd@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 004 Phebe Ding Universiti Putra Malaysia Dep. Of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture 43400 Serdang Malaysia phebe@agri.upm.edu.my Abstract: P 108 Jan Dittgen Bayer CropScience AG Industriepark Hoechst, H 872 65926 Frankfurt/Main Germany jan.dittgen@bayercropscience.com Abstract: - Iain Donnison Aberystwyth University IGER, Plas Gogerddan SY23 3EB Aberystwyth United Kingdom iain.donnison@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: P 115 Barbara Doyle Prestwich University College Cork Department of Zoology, Ecology and Plant Science Butler Building, Distillery Fields, North Mall Cork, Ireland b.doyle@ucc.ie Abstract: P 071, P 130 Céline Duc Institut de Biologie Intégrative des Plantes Laboratoire de Biochimie et Physiologie Moléculaire des Plantes, 2, Place Viala, 34060 Montpellier cedex 1, France duc@supagro.inra.fr Abstract: P 079 Dénes Dudits Biological Research Center, HAS H-6726 Szeged, Temesvari krt. 62. H-6701 Szeged, P.O.Box 521 Hungary dudits@brc.hu Abstract: - Manuel Echeverria Université de Perpignant 52 Avenue Paul Alduy 66860 Perpignant France manuel.echeverria@univ-perp.fr Abstract: -
- 240. 240 Sakina Elshibli University of Helsinki Latokartanonkaari 7 FI-00014 Helsinki Finland sakina.elshibli@helsinki.fi Abstract: P 011 Karla Falloon New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, New Zealand Mission to EU Square de Meeus 1 1000 Brussels, Belgium karla.falloon@morst.govt.nz Abstract: - Alessandro Fammartino Plant Biotechnology Group Instute of Plant science – ETH Zurich Universistätsstrasse 2 Zürich, Switzerland fammarta@ethz.ch Abstract: P 046 Theodora Farmaki The Centre for Research and Technology Institute of Agrobiot. (CERTH-INA) 6th KM Charilau – Thermi Rd Thermi 570 01 Thessaloniki, Greece mfarmaki@certh.gr Abstract: P 030 Kerrie Farrar Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), Plas Gogerddan SY23 3EB Aberystwyth United Kingdom kerrie.farrar@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: P 115 Markus Fauth Institut für Molekulare Biowissenschaften Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Siesmayerstraße 70, Gebäude B-204 60323 Frankfurt, Germany m.fauth@bio.uni-frankfurt.de Abstract: - Felipe Felippes MPI for Developmental Biology Spemannstrasse 37-39 72076 Tuebingen Germany felipe.felippes@tuebingen.mpg.de Abstract: P 085 Margherita Festa Universitá degli Studi di Milano Via Celoria 26 20133 Milan Italy margherita.festa@unimi.it Abstract: P 128 Catherine Feuillet UMR INRA-UBP 1095 Amélioration et Santé des Plantes Domaine de Crouelle 234, Avenue du Brézet 63100 Clermont-Ferrand, France catherine.feuillet@clermont.inra.fr Abstract: S 006 Rainer Fischer Fraunhofer Institute IME Forckenbeckstrasse 6 52074 Aachen Germany fischer@molbiotech.rwth-aachen.de Abstract: - Richard B. Flavell Ceres Inc. "The Energy Crop Company" 1535 Rancho Conejo BLVD Thousand Oaks CA 91320 USA rflavell@ceres-inc.com Abstract: S 001 Elisabeth Fletcher ITI Lifesciences Ltd Innovation House, 17 Luna Place DD2 1TP Dundee United Kingdom liz.fletcher@itilifesciences.com Abstract: - Delphine Fleury University of Adelaide – ACPFG PMB1, Glen Osmond SA 5064 Australia delphine.fleury@acpfg.com.au Abstract: P 008 Silvia Fluch Austrain research Centres GmbH-Arc Biogenetics/Picme 2444 Seibersdorf Austria silvia.fluch@arcs.ac.at Abstract: P 010
- 241. 241 Timothée Flutre INRA – URGI 523, Place des Terrasses de l’Agora 91034 Evry France Timothee.flutre@versailles.inra.fr Abstract: - Andrew D. Friend Department of Geography University of Cambridge Downing Place Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK adf10@cam.ac.uk Abstract: S 015 Solène Froidure Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes-Microorganismes (LIPM) UMR CNRS/INRA 2594/441 Chemin de BordeRouge, BP 52627, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan Cedex, France solene.froidure@toulouse.inra.fr Abstract: P 039 Kaien Fujino Lab. of Crop Physiology Graduate School of Agriculture Hokkaido University, Kita 9 Nishi, Kita-ku 00-8589 Sapporo, Japan kaien@res.agr.hokudai.ac.jp Abstract: P 016, P 021 Mike Gale John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK mike.gale@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: S 005 Martin Ganal Traitgenetics GmbH Am Schwabeplan 1b 06466 Gatersleben Germany ganal@traitgenetics.de Abstract: P 005 Amélia Gaston INRA 81, avenue Edouard Bourleaux BP81 33883 Villenave d’Ornon cedex France Amelia.gaston@bordeaux.inra.fr Abstract: P 099 Alain Gaume Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil Schloss, Postfach 185 8820 Wädenswil Switzerland alain.gaume@acw.admin.ch Abstract: P 001, P 019, P 031 Fernando Geu-Flores University of Copenhagen 40 Thorvaldsensvej 1871 Frederiksberg Denmark feg@life.ku.dk Abstract: P 125 Yuri Gleba Icon Genetics GmbH Weinbergweg 22 D - 06120 Halle Germany gleba@icongenetics.de Abstract: S 050 Catherine Golstein INRA Unité Prospective 147 Rue de l’Université 75338 Paris cedex 7 Paris catherine.golstein@paris.inra.fr Abstract: - Wilhelm Gruissem ETH Zurich Institute of Plant Sciences Universitaetstrasse 2 8092 Zurich, Switzerland wgruissem@ethz.ch Abstract: S 004 Marion Guillou INRA 147 rue de l'université 75338 Paris Cedex 07 France marion.guillou@paris.inra.fr Abstract: - Martin Hajduch Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology Akademicka 2, P.O.box 39A 950 07 Nitra Slovak Republic martin.hajduch@savba.sk Abstract: P 014
- 242. 242 Anna Haldrup Plant Biotech Denmark Faculty of Life Sciences University of Copenhegen 40 Thorvaldsensvej, 1871 Frederiksberg Denmark anna@life.ku.dk Abstract: P 088 Timothy Hall Directorate E - Agriculture, Biotechnologies, Food DG Research European Commission, SDME 8/26 B - 1049 Brussels, Belgium Timothy.Hall@ec.europa.eu Abstract: S 002 Manuela Hase Plant Sceinec Center ETH Zurich LFW B51 Universitätsstrasse 2 8092 Zurich Switzerland manuela.hase@bluewin.ch Abstract: - Steven Hayes University of Nottingham Div. of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough, Leicester United Kingdom sbxsph@exmail.nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 015 Berthold Heinze BFW- Federal Research Centre for Forests Dep. of Genetics Hauptstrasse 7 1140 Vienna, Austria berthold.heinze@bfw.gv.at Abstract: - Roger Hellens HortResearch 120 Mt Albert Road 1025 Auckland New Zealand rhellens@hortresearch.co.nz Abstract: P 013 Theo Hendriks Université des Sciences et Technologies Lille 1 Cité Scientifique, Bat. SN2 3rd floor 59655 villeneuve d’Ascq France theo.hendriks@univ-lille1.fr Abstract: P 107 Jacek Hennig Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS Pawinskiego 5a 02-106 Warszawa Poland jacekh@ibb.waw.pl Abstract: - Goetz Hensel Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Plant Reproductive Biology Group Corrensstr. 3, 06466 Gatersleben Germany hensel@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract: P 121 Holger Hesse MPI für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie Am Muehlenberg 1 14476 Potsdam /Golm Germany hesse@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: P 112 Simon Hiscock School Biological Sciences Univeristy of Bristol Woodland Road Bristol, B58IUG UK Simon.Hiscock@bristol.ac.uk Abstract: S 011 Arik Honig Tel-Aviv University Dep. of Plant Sciences 69978 Tel Aviv Israel honigari@post.tau.ac.il Abstract: P 056 Anne Honkanen University of Helsinki Viikinkaari 1 / PL 65 FI-00014 Helsinki Finland Anne.Honkanen@helsinki.fi Abstract: P 082 Stephen Hopper The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Kew TW9 3AB Richmond United Kingdom s.hopper@kew.org Abstract: S 010
- 243. 243 François Houllier INRA Rue de l’Université 147 F-75338 Paris Cedex 07 France francois.houllier@paris.inra.fr Abstract: - Iliana Ionkova Faculty of Pharmacy Medical University of Sofia 1000 Sofia Bulgaria ionkova@pharmfac.acad.bg Abstract: P 126 Nolwenn Jarno Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale UMR5168 CEA/CNRS/INRA/Univ. J. Fourier CEA Grenoble -- iRTSV – DSV- LPCV 17 rue des martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 9, France nolwenn.jarno@cea.fr Abstract: - Valérie Jaulneau CNRS – UMR5546 2, Borde Rouge 31830 Auzeville Tolosan France jaulneau_valerie@yahoo.fr Abstract: P 040 Joanna Jenkinson Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Polaris House, North Star Avenue SN2 1UH Swindon United Kingdom joanna.jenkinson@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: - Jonathan DG Jones Research Group Leader and Head of Lab The Sainsbury Laboratory John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK Jonathan.jones@tsl.ac.uk Abstract: S 030 Jacques Joyard CNRS, Lab.de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale CEA Grenoble Rue des Martyrs 38000 Grenoble, France jjoyard@cea.fr Abstract: - Miroslav Kaminek Institute of Experimental Botany ASCR Rozvojova 236 16502 Prague 6 Czech Republic kaminek@ueb.cas.cz Abstract: P 026 Sophien Kamoun The Sainsbury Laboratory John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK sophien.kamoun@tsl.ac.uk Abstract: S 031 Jay Keasling Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 717 Potter Street Berkeley, CA 94720 USA jdkeasling@lbl.gov Abstract: S 047 Benjamin Kilian Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Correnstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben Germany kilian@ipk-getersleben.de Abstract: S 013 Ian King IBERS University of Aberystwyth Gogerddan SY23 3EB Aberystyth United Kingdom ipk@aber.ac.uk Abstract: - Yuji Kishima Research Faculty of Agriculture Hokkaido University Kita 9 Nishi, Kita-ku 060-8589 Sapporo Japan kishima@abs.agr.hokudai.ac.jp Abstract: P 016, P 021 Attila Kiss Eszterhazy Karoly University EGERFOOD Regional Knowledge Centre Eszterhazy Square 1 3300 Eger, Hungary attkiss@ektf.hu Abstract: P 044, P 101, P123, P 124
- 244. 244 György Botond Kiss Agricultural Biotechnology Center Szent- György Albert 2100 Gödöllö Hungary gbkiss@abc.hu Abstract: - Nicholas Korres Agricultural University of Athens 75 Iera Odos Str. Gr-11855 Athens Greece nickorre@otenet.gr Abstract: P 002, P 052 Kerstin Kramer Monsanto Av. Tervuren 270-272 1150 Brussels Belgium kerstin.kramer@monsanto.com Abstract: - Ilse Kranner Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Wakehurst Place RH17 6 TN Haywards Heath United Kingdom i.kranner@kew.org Abstract: P 028 Manoj Kulkarni Ben-Gurion University of Negev Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research 84990 Sde Boker Israel manoj@bgu.ac.il Abstract: P 054 Tim Lang City University Centre for Food Policy Northampton Square London EC1V OHB, UK t.lang@city.ac.uk Abstract: S 019 Peter Langridge Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics University of Adelaide Waite Campus, PMB 1 Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia Peter.langridge@adelaide.edu.au Abstract: S 034, P 008 André Le Bivic CNRS Campus Gérard Mégie 3, Rue Michel-Ange 75794 Paris cedex 16, France andre.le-bivic@cnrs-dir.fr Abstract: - Rémi Lemoine CNRS – Université de Poitiers FRE 3091, Physiologie Moléculaire du Transport des Sucres, 40 Av. Du Recteur Pineau 86022 Poitiers, France Remi.Lemoine@univ-poitiers.fr Abstract: P 058 Loic Lepiniec INRA- Seed Laboratory Biology Route St-Cyr 78026 Versailles France lepiniec@versailles.inra.fr Abstract: P 065 Ottoline Leyser Department of Biology, Area 11 University of York York, YO10 5YW UK hmol1@york.ac.uk Abstract: S 022 Rein Lillak Estonian Research Institute of Agriculture Teaduse 13 75501 Saku Estonia rein.lillak@eria.ee Abstract: - Cathrine Lillo University of Stavager Dep. of Mathematics and Natural Sciences 4036 Stavager Norway cathrine.lillo@uis.no Abstract: - Fiorella Lo Schiavo Universitá degli Studi di Padova Via U. Bassi 58b 35131 Padova Italy fiorella.loschiavo@unipd.it Abstract: -
- 245. 245 Annabé Louw-Gaume ETHZ, Institute for Plant Science Group of Plant Nutrition Eschikon 33, 8315 Lindau Switzerland anna.louw-gaume@ipw.agrl.ethz.ch Abstract: P 019 Hélène Lucas INRA Dept. De Génétique et d’Améliorisation des plantes F-78026 Versailles cedex France dgap@versailles.inra.fr Abstract: - Jutta Ludwig-Müller Technische Universität Dresden Institute for Botany Zellescher Weg 20b 01062 Dresden, Germany Jutta.Ludwig-Mueller@tu-dresden.de Abstract: P 041 Nicolas Lugon-Moulin Philip Morris International, R&D Quai Jeanrenauld 56 2000 Neuchatel Switzerland nicolas.lugon-moulin@pmintl.com Abstract: - Xiaohong Ma Faculty of Agricultural Food and Environment Hebrew University Bldg A, Room 2221 76100 Rehovot, Israel dodoma9999@hotmail.com Abstract: P 023 Pavlina Machova Forestry and Game Management Research Institute FGMRI, Strnady 136 25202 Jilovist Czech Republic machova@vulhm.cz Abstract: - Elspeth MacRae Scion 49 Sala Street 3020 Rotorua New Zealand elspeth.macrae@scionresearch.com Abstract: - Andreas Mahn Project Management Jülich Forschungszentrum Jülich 52425 Jülich Germany a.mahn@fz-juelich.de Abstract: - Kristiina Mäkinen University of Helsinki Dep. of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology PO Box 27 00014 Helsinki, Finland kristiina.makinen@helsinki.fi Abstract: P 049 Chanate Malumpong University of Nottingham School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus LE 12 5RD Loughborough, Leicester United Kingdom sbxcm2@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 003 Elke Mangelsen Swedish University of Agricultural Science Dep. of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics Box 7080 75007 Uppsala, Sweden elke.mangelsen@vbsg.slu.se Abstract: P 009 Helle Martens University of Copenhagen Faculty of Life Sciences 40 Thorvaldsensvej, 1871 Fredriksberg, F Copenhagen Denmark hjm@life.ku.dk Abstract: P 090 Isabelle Martinez Biogemma 8 Rue des Frères Lumière 63100 Clermont Ferrand France isabelle.martinez@biogemma.com Abstract: - Jaroslav Matousek Biological Centre Academic Science CR v.v.i. Institute of Plant Molecular Biology 37005 Ceské Budejovice Czech Republic jmat@umbr.cas.cz Abstract: P 062, P 122
- 246. 246 Andrea Matros IPK – Gatersleben Correnstrasse 3 06466 Gatersleben Germany matros@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract: P 078 Ioannis Matsoukas Warwick HRI, University of Warwick Wellesbourne Site CV35 9EF Warwick United Kingdom I.Matsoukas@warwick.ac.uk Abstract: P 083 Sean Mayes University of Nottingham School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough, Leicester United Kingdom sean.mayes@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 003, P 004, P 007, P 015, P 027, P 095, S 017 Joachim (Jo) Messing Rutgers University Waksman Institute of Microbiology 190 Frelinghuysen Road Piscataway, NJ 08854-8020, USA messing@waksman.rutgers.edu Abstract: S 008 Karin Metzlaff European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) Rue de l’Industrie 4 1000 Brussels Belgium karin.metzlaff@epsomail.org Abstract: - Michael Metzlaff Bayer BioScinece NV Technologiepark 38 9052 Gent Belgium michael.metzlaff@bayercropscience.com Abstract: - Franco Miglietta IBIMET - CNR Via Caproni 8 50145 Firenze Italy f.miglietta@ibimet.cnr.it Abstract: S 014 Mira Milisavljevic Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering Vojvode Stepe 444a, PO Box 23 11010 Belgrade, Serbia gmo.lab@sezampro.yu Abstract: P 020 Silvia Minoia Agrobios Statale Ionica 106, KM448,2 75010 Metaponto (MT), Italy minoia@evry.inra.fr sminoia@hotmail.com Abstract: P 114 Yana Mishutkina Centre Bioengineering, Russian Academy of Sciences Prosp. 60-letya Oktyabrya 7/1 117312 Moscow Russian Federation akatio@biengi.ac.ru Abstract: P 098 Hans-Peter Mock Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, 3 Correnstrasse 06466 Gatersleben Germany mock@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract: P 078 Katrien Molders European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) Rue de l’Industrie 4 1000 Brussels Belgium Katrien.molders@epsomail.org Abstract: - Odireleng Molosiwa University of Nottingham School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough, Leicester United Kingdom sbxom@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 007 Graham Moore Crop Genetics department John Innes Centre Norwich Research Park Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK Graham.moore@bbsrc.ac.uk Abstract: S 007
- 247. 247 Wayne Morris Scottish Crop Research Institute Intergrowrie DD2 5DA Dundee United Kingdom Wayne.Morris@scri.ac.uk Abstract: P 103 Virginie Mortier VIB Plant Systems Biology University Ghent Technologiepark 927 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium vimor@psb.ugent.be Abstract: P 037 Laila Moubayidin Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics of Model Systems, Via dei Sardi 70 00185 Rome, Italy lailamoubayidin@gmail.com Abstract: P 070 Bertrand Muller INRA, LEPSE-IBIP/INRA SUPAGRO 34090 Montpellier France muller@supagro.inra.fr Abstract: P 057 Malik Ghulam Mustafa Laboratoire: Plastes et Différenciation Cellulaire FRE 3017, Université Joseph Fourier BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9 France mgmustafa2005@hotmail.com Abstract: - Naira Naouar VIB Plant Systems Biology University Ghent Technologiepark 927 9052 Zwijnaarde, Belgium nanao@psb.ugent.be Abstract: - Noemi Nemeth Iuhasz VIB Technologiepark 927 9052 Gent Belgium noiuh@psb.ugent.be Abstract: P 117 Kåre Lehmann Nielsen Aalborg University Sohgaardsholmej 49 9000 Aalborg Denmark kln@bio.aau.dk Abstract: P 069 Victoria Nikiforova Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Am Muehlenberg 1 14476 Potsdam Germany nikiforova@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: P 035 Melanie Oey Max-Planck_Institute for Molecular Planat Physiology Wissenschaftspark Golm, Am Meuhlenberg 1 14476 Postdam (OT) Golm Germany oey@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: S 053 Eileen O’Herlihy University College Cork Dep. of Zoology, Ecology and Plant Science Butler Buiding, Distillery Fields, North Mall Cork, Ireland eoh@ucc.ie Abstract: P 071, P 130 Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland PO Box 1000 02044 Espoo Finland kirsi-marja.oksman@vtt.fi Abstract: - Odd-Arne Olsen Norwegian University of Life Sciences N-1432 Aas Norway odd-arne.olsen@umb.no Abstract: - Hilde-Gunn Opsahl-Sorteberg Norwegian University of Life Sciences Dep. of Plant and Environmental Sciences PO Box 5003 1432 Aas, Norway hildop@umb.no Abstract: -
- 248. 248 Bruce Osborne University College Dublin, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science D4 Dublin Ireland Bruce.Osborne@ucd.ie Abstract: S 016 Simon Owens The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Kew TW9 3Ab Richmond United Kingdom s.owens@kew.org Abstract: S 010 Maris Salomé Pais Uni of Molecular Biology & Plant Biotechnology Ed. ICAT, Campo Grande 1749-016 Lisboa Portugal mariapais2004@yahoo.co.uk Abstract: - Boris Parent INRA-LEPSE, Bat 7 2 Place Viala 34060 Montpellier France parentb@supagro.inra.fr Abstract: P 055, S 036 Daniela Paveringova Institute Plant Molecular Biology Biology Center ASCR Branisovska 31 37005 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic daniela@umbr.cas.cz Abstract: P 047 Javier Paz-Ares Centro Nacional de Biotechnologia-CSIC Darwin 3, Campus Universidad Autonoma Cantoblanco 28049 Madrid, Spain jpazares@cnb.uam.es Abstract: S 027 Teresa Penfield The University of York CNAP Artemisia Research Project Dep. of Biology, Area 7 PO Box 373, YO10 5YW York United Kingdom tp505@kork.ac.uk Abstract: S 041 Christophe Plomion INRA 69 Route d’Arcachon 33610 Cestas France plomion@pierroton.inra.fr Abstract: - Maruša Pompe-Novak National Institute of Biology Vecna pot 111 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia marusa.pompe.novak@nib.si Abstract: P 094 Fernando Ponz INIA Autopist A-6, km 7 28040 Madrid Spain fponz@inia.es Abstract: P 050, P 086, P 134 Kaisa Poutanen VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland P.O. Box 1000 FI-02044 VTT Finland Kaisa.Poutanen@vtt.fi Abstract: S 042 Stanislav Prochazka Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry Dep. Of Plant Biology Zemedelska 1 61300 Brno, Czech Republic Prochazk@mendelu.cz Abstract: P 080 Pere Puigdomenech Centre for Research in Genomics, CSIC-IRTA-UAB, Jordi Girona 18 08034 Barcelona Spain pprgmp@ibmb.csic.es Abstract: - Matin Qaim Department für Agrarökonomie und Rurale Entwicklung, Arbeitsgebiet Welternährungswirtschaft und Rurale Entwicklung Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5 37073 Göttingen, Germany mqaim@uni-goettingen.de Abstract: S 020
- 249. 249 Paul Quick University of Sheffield Animal and Plant Sciences Western Bank S10 2TN Shieffield United Kingdom p.quick@shieffield.ac.uk Abstract: - Volodymyr Radchuk Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research IPK, Correnstrasse 3 06466 Gatersleben Germany radchukv@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract: P 066 Roberto Ranieri Barilla Via Mantova, 166 43100 Parma Italy r.ranieri@barilla.it Abstract: S 043 Søren K. Rasmussen Department of Agricultural Sciences 40 Thorvaldsensvej DK-1871 Frederiksberg C Denmark skr@life.ku.dk Abstract: S 044 Susanne Rasmussen AgResearch Grasslands Tennent Drive, private bag 11008 4442 Palmeston North New Zealand susanne.rasmussen@agresearch.co.nz Abstract: P 104 Pascale Ratet Institut des Sciences du Vegetal CNRS 1 Av. De la Terrasse 91198 Gif sur Yvette France Pascale.Ratet@isv.cnrs-gif.fr Abstract: - Hans-Jörg Reif BayerCropScience Alfred Nobelstrasse 50 40789 Monheim Germany hans-joerg.reif@bayercropscience.com Abstract: - Andreas Renz BASF Plant Science GmbH Agricultural Center Carl-Bosch-Str 64, BPS Li 439 67117 Limburgerhof, Germany andreas.renz@basf.com Abstract: - Ralf Reski University of Freiburg 79104 Freiburg Germany ralf.reski@biologie.uni-freiburg.de Abstract: - Gracia Ribas-Vargas University of Nottingham School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough United Kingdom gracia.ribasvargas@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 095 Eevi Rintamäki University of Turku Dep. of Biology, Lab. Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology FI-20014 Turku, Finland eviri@utu.fi Abstract: P 077 Enrique Ritter NEIKER – Basque Institute for Research and Development in Agriculture Apartado 46 01080 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain eritter@neiker.net Abstract: P 043 Adeline Robin LPCV, CEA Grenoble 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble France Adeline.robin@cea.fr Abstract: - Guillaume Robin Via Valérie VERDIER, IRD 911, Avenue Agropolis BP 64501 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5 France Guillaume.Robin@mpl.ird.fr Abstract: -
- 250. 250 Marion Röder Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Correnstrasse 3 06466 Gatersleben, Germany roder@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract: P 097 Odd Arne Rognli Norwegian University of Life Sciences Dep. Plant and Environmental Sciences PO Box 5003 1432 Aas, Norway odd-arne.rognli@umb.no Abstract: P 017 Laura Rossini Parco Tecnologico Padano Srl Via Einstein – Localitá Cascina Codazza Lodi Italy laura.rossini@unimi.it Abstract: P 106 Sandrine Rösti Philip Morris International Quai Jeanrenauld 3 2000 Neuchatel Switzerland Sandrine.roesti@pmintl.com Abstract: - Grit Rubin Max-Planck_Institute for Molecular Planat Physiology Wissenschaftspark Golm, Am Meuhlenberg 1 14476 Postdam (OT) Golm Germany rubin@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: P 036, S 026 Cyrille Saintenac INRA - UMR1095 GDEC Domaine de Crouelle 234, avenue du Brézet F-63100 Clermont-Ferrand, France saintena@clermont.inra.fr Abstract: S 006 Yumiko Sakuragi Dep. of Plant Biology and Biotechnology Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen 40 Thorvaldsensvej 1871 Frederiksberg Denmark ysa@life.ku.dk Abstract: P 096 Flora Sanchez INIA Autopista A-6, km 7 28040 Madrid Spain sanchez@inia.es Abstract: P 086, P 134 Charalambos (Babis) Savakis Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College London Sir Alexander Fleming Building South Kensington Campus London, U.K., SW7 2AZ b.savakis@imperial.ac.uk Abstract: S 003 Dierk Scheel Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry Weinberg 3, D-06120 Halle Germany dscheel@ipb-halle.de Abstract: - Joachim Schiemann Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) Federal research Centre for Cultivated Plants Messeweg 11/12 D-38104 Braunschweig, Germany joachim.schiemann@jki.bund.de Abstract: S 021 Ralf-Michael Schmidt BASF Plant Science Carl-Bosch-Strasse 64 67117 Limburgerhof Germany ralf-michael.schmidt@basf.com Abstract: - Thomas Schmülling Free University of Berlin Institute of Biology/Applied Genetics Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 6 14195 Berlin, Germany tschmue@zedat.fu-berlin.de Abstract: P 075 Heike Schneider Forschungszentrum Jülich Institut für Chemie und Dynamik der Geospäre, IGC-3: Phytosphäre 52425 Jülich, Germany He.schneider@fz-juelich.de Abstract: S 029
- 251. 251 Ulrich Schurr Forschungszentrum Jülich –IGC3: Phytosphere JohnenStrasse 52425 Jülich Germany u.schurr@fz-juelich.de Abstract: P 063, P 111 Basu Shravani University of Nottingham School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough Leicester United Kingdom shravani.basu@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: S 017, P 007 Alla Shvaleva Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Tecnologia Av.de Republica, EAN 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal shvaleva@itb.unl.pt Abstract: P 018 Jan Snel Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture PO Box 16 6700 AA Wageningen The Netherlands Jan.snel@wur.nl Abstract: P 119 Monserrat Solé Genetics Department at faculty of Biology University of Barcelona Av. Diagonal 645 08028 Barcelona, Spain m.sole@ub.edu Abstract: S 033 Gabriella Sonnante National research Council (CNR) Institute of Plant Genetics Via Amendola 165/A 70126 Bari, Italy gabriella.sonnante@igv.cnr.it Abstract: P 113, P 133 Charlie Spillane University College Cork Genetics and Biotechnology Lab., Room 2.10 Lee Maltings, Prospect Row Cork, Ireland c.spillane@ucc.ie Abstract: - Thomas Städler ETH Zürich, Plant Ecological Genetics, Institute of Integrative Biology Universitätsstrasse 16 CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland thomas.staedler@env.ethz.ch Abstract: S 012 Mark Stitt Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Am Mühlenberg 1 14476 Potsdam-Golm Germany mstitt@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: S 026, P 036, P 038, S 038 Björn Sundberg Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SE-901 83 UMEÅ Sweden Bjorn.Sundberg@genfys.slu.se Abstract: S 024 Nada Surbanovski East Malling Research and the University of Leeds Faculty of Biology (Centre for Plant Sciences) East Malling Research, New Road, East Malling, Kent, ME19 6BJ, UK nada.surbanovski@emr.ac.uk Abstract: P 061 Laszlo Szabados Biological Research Center Temesvari krt 62, 6726 Szeged Hungary szabados@brc.hu Abstract: S 037 Helena Tabor-Jogi Estonian Research Institute of Agriculture Teaduse 13, 75501 Saku Estonia helena@eria.ee Abstract: - Frank Takken University of Amsterdam SILS – Plant Pathology Kruislaan 318, Amsterdam Netherlands takken@science.uva.nl Abstract: S 032
- 252. 252 Lee Kwan Tang The Universuty of Hong Kong Room 7N04, Kadoorie Biological Science Buiding School of Biological Sciences, HKU Pokfulan Road Hong Kong H0329677@hkusua.hku.hk Abstract: P 074 Jean-Marie Tantot HYBRIGENICS SA Services 3-5 Impasse Reille 75014 Paris France jmtantot@hybrigenics.com Abstract: - Francois Tardieu INRA - SupAgro, Laboratoire d'Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux (LEPSE) 2 Place Viala, 34820 Montpellier Cedex France tardieu@supagro.inra.fr Abstract: S 036 Dominique This Montpellier SupAgro, UMR DAP, CIRAD Avenue Agropolis TA A 96/03 34398 Montpellier France dominique.this@supagro.inra.fr Abstract: P 022 Anne-Céline Thuillet IRD 911 Av. Agropolis 34394 Montpellier France anne-celine.thuillet@ird.fr Abstract: - Chiara Tonelli Università degli Studi di Milano Via Celoria 26 20133 Milano Italy chiara.tonelli@unimi.it Abstract: - Lesley Torrance Scottish Crop research Institute Invergowrie DD2 5DA Dundee United Kingdom ltorra@scri.ac.uk Abstract: - Mary Traynor Journal of Experimental Botany Bailrigg House, lancaster University LA1 4YE Lancaster United Kingdom m.traynor@lancaster.ac.uk Abstract: - Erkki Truve Tallinn University of Technology Akadeemia tee 15 12618 Tallinn Estonia erkki.truve@ttu.ee Abstract: P 048 Athanasios Tsaftaris Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CeRTH) 6th km Charilaou, Thermi Road 57001 Thessaloniki Greece tsaft@certh.gr Abstract: P 030, P 100 Roberto Tuberosa Dep. of Agroenvironmental Sciences and Technology Viale Fanin 44 40127 Bologna Italy roberto.tuberosa@unibo.it Abstract: P 053, P 006 Marina Tucci CNR Institute of Plant Genetics, Portici (NA) Via Universitá 133 80055 Portici Italy mtucci@unina.it Abstract: P 051 Magalie Uyttewaal IFR128 BioSciences Lyon-Gerland Laboratoire Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon 46 Allée d'Italie 69364 Lyon, France magalie.uyttewaal@ens-lyon.fr Abstract: P 084 Jari Valkonen University of Helsinki Dep. of Applied Biology PO Box 27, 00014 Helsinki Finland Jari.valkonen@helsinki.fi Abstract: -
- 253. 253 Wim van Camp CropDesign N.V. Technologiepark 3 B-9052 Gent Belgium wim.vancamp@cropdesign.com Abstract: S 040 Renier van der Hoorn Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research Carl-von-Linne weg 10 50829 Cologne Germany hoorn@mpiz-koeln.mpg.de Abstract: P 042 Nancy van de Steene Bayer BioScience NV Technologiepark 38 9052 Gent Belgium nancy.vandesteene@bayercropscience.com Abstract: - Tomas Vanek UEB AVCR Rozvojova 263 16000 Prague Czech Republic vanek@ueb.cas.cz Abstract: P 131, P 132 Radomira Vankova UEB AVCR Rozvojova 263 16000 Prague Czech Republic vankova@ueb.cas.cz Abstract: P 026 Wessel van Leeuwen Wagenigen University Laboratory of Genetics Arboretumlaan 4, 6703 BD Wagenigen The Netherlands Wessel.vanLeeuwen@wur.nl Abstract: S 045 Rosalinde van Lipzig VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Gent University Technologiepark 927 9052 Gent, Belgium rolip@psb.ugent.be Abstract: - Nguyen Van Tuat Vietnamese Academy of Agricultural Sciences VAAS Thanh tri 1000 Hanoi Vietnam vantuat55@vnn.vn Abstract: - Pablo Vera IBMCP (CSIC) Camino de Vera s/n IBMCP (CSIC-UPV) 46022 Valencia Spain vera@ibmcp.upv.es Abstract: - Yves Vigouroux IRD 911 Av. Agropolis 34394 Montpellier France yves.vigouroux@mpl.ird.fr Abstract: P 025 Emilie Vinolo Hybrigenics SA Services 3-5 Impasse Reille 75014 Paris France evinolo@hybrigenics.com Abstract: P 076 Diana Virag Eszterhazy Karoly University EGERFOOD Regional Knowledge Centre Eszterhazy Square 1 3300 Eger Hungary viragdia@ektf.hu Abstract: P 044, P 101, P 123 Nicolaus von Wiren Molecular Plant Nutrition University of Hohenheim 70593 Stuttgart Germany vonwiren@uni-hohenheim.de Abstract: S 028 Achim Walter Forschungszentrum Jülich –IGC3: Phytosphere JohnenStrasse 52425 Jülich Germany a.walter@fz-juelich.de Abstract: P 063, P 111
- 254. 254 Hong Wang PLANTA GmbH Grimsehlstrasse 31 37555 Einbeck Germany h.wang@kws.com Abstract: - Aleksandra Wasilewska CNRS_ISV 1 Av. De la Terrasse, Batiment 23 91198 Gif sur Yvette France Aleksandra.Wasilewska@isv.cnrs-gif.fr Absstract: P 060 Robert Watson Defra Area 1A, Noble House 17 Smith Square London, SW1P 3JR, United Kingdom Robert.Watson@defra.gsi.gov.uk Abstract: S 018 Nicola Weichert Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Corrensstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben Germany weichert@ipk-gatersleben.de Abstract: P 105 Anika Wiese-Klinkenberg Research Centre Jülich Phytosphere ICG 3 52425 Jülich Germany A.wiese@fz-juelich.de Abstract: P 111, P 063 Lothar Willmitzer Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie Am Mühlenberg 1 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany willmitzer@mpimp-golm.mpg.de Abstract: S 038 Dietrich Wittmeyer ERRMA Südliche Ringstr. 111 63225 Langen Germany wittmeyer@vci.de Abstract: - Przemyslaw Wojtaszek Dep. of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Faculty of Biology Adam Mickiewicz University Ul. Miedzychodzka 5 60-371 Poznan, Poland przemow@ibch.poznan.pl Abstract: - Jian-Kang Zhu Department of Botany and Plant Sciences Institute for Integrative Genome Biology University of California, 2150 Batchelor Hall Riverside, CA 92521, USA jian-kang.zhu@ucr.edu Abstract: S 035 Aviah Zilberstein Tel Aviv University, Dep. of Plant Science 69978 Tel Aviv Israel aviah@post.tau.ac.il Abstract: P 056 Helene Wanda Zub INRA 2 Chaussée Brunehaut Estrées Mons BP 50136 80203 Peronne France helene.zub@mons.inra.fr Abstract: S 049 Ramli Zubaidah University of Nottingham, Plant Science Division Sutton Bonington Campus LE12 5RD Loughborough United Kingdom sbxzr@nottingham.ac.uk Abstract: P 087