Abstract

The predominance of American companies in corn breeding/biotechnology means that current maize lines are frequently ill-adapted to the needs of European agriculture and industry. Further, European companies are badly positioned to generate and exploit know-how and intellectual property relating to this important world crop.

In a radically different approach to cereal improvement, six world-class research groups have combined with a major industrial player to develop and exploit a range of novel technologies aimed at modifying the functional domains of the maize grain. Cellular, molecular and genetic strategies will be combined with new technologies (e.g. imprinting screens, in vitro fertilisation) to reveal the molecular mechanisms controlling development of grain components responsible for the translocation, storage and processing of the major seed reserves. The industrial partner will use these data to "reconstruct" the maize seed to provide new lines with improved quality and yield, better suited to the European agricultural and commercial environment.

The intellectual property and know-how generated by this work, which will be applicable to all grain cereals, will do much to improve the competitive position of European breeding/biotech companies.

Objectives

Strategic objectives of the project are:

• To deliver lines of maize of higher yield and quality, better adapted to the European environment.
• To improve the competitiveness of the European biotechnology industry by providing intellectual property and know-how.
• To reduce, thereby, the predominance of US companies in the increasingly commercially-important field of plant improvement.

These strategic aims will be met through defined technical objectives;

• The application of novel technologies to identify and characterise the molecular mechanisms regulating development of the key functional domains of the maize seed.
• The development of molecular tools by which, using endogenous gene systems, these molecular controls may be modified for each functional domain.

The use of these tools by industrial partners to "reconstruct" the grain of maize so as to provide plant lines with improved yield and quality - better suited to European farming and industrial requirements.

Description of the work

In order to deliver maize lines of improved quality and yield, better adapted to the European environment, and to provide European companies with the generic know-how necessary for improvement of all grain cereals, 6 world-class research groups and a major industrial player will develop and exploit novel biotechnological tools to modify the key functional domains of the maize grain.

The work will thus be subdivided into 4 Workpackages (WPs) each focused on key aspects of grain development, and each utilising a range of novel experimental approaches. In vitro fertilisation will be used in WP1 to identify expressed sequences prior to and post fertilisation, which, combined with (a)_screens for mutants affecting early development and (b) the application of Allelic Message Display to identify imprinted genes, will identify important regulatory steps in early development. WP2 will focus on genes regulating development of the central starchy domain, where the grain reserved are stored and processed - and where grain yield and quality is principally determined. This work will be built on a platform of EST libraries and mutants provided by commercial partners, and will concentrate on the molecular regulation of the important, but poorly-understood, endoreduplication phase. Translocation of reserves into the endosperm and embryo is addressed by WP3, which will be built on ground-breaking Framework IV data relating to the molecular control of the key transfer layers responsible for the movement of reserves into the endosperm, and from the endosperm into the embryo. WP4 concentrates on endosperm/embryo interactions, and embryogenesis, exploiting new data on embryo genes involved in early development and function, and the crucial cell cycle events which "format" the meristems of the early embryo.

Each WP will be actively managed by a partner with a proven track record in EU programmes, and the project strengthened through formally-organized horizontal activities. The work will be jointly coordinated with other projects within the EUROMAIZE grouping. Importantly, the European "user" community will provide input at annual MAZE workshops.

Deliverables

The aim of MAZE is to deliver to the European Biotechnology/agribusiness community the tools and developed materials necessary to provide the "User Community" (European Industry & thereby the European Consumer) with the following.

• Maize lines more fitted to the European environment and more appropriate to the uses of European Industry.
• Know-how/Intellectual Property enabling the "reconstruction" of the maize grain so as to produce seeds with improved quality and yield properties, with priority given to the manipulation of endogenous genetic systems.
• Generic Know-how/Intellectual Property enabling the improvement of seed quality and yield in all grain crops.

Contacts

Participant

• Pascual PEREZ / Biogemma FRANCE
• Pedro PUIGDOMENECH / CSIC Departament de Genetica Molecular / SPAIN
• A. Douwe de BOER / Genetwister Technologies B.V. NETHERLANDS
• Julio SALINAS / Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA) / SPAIN
• Francesco CELLINI / Metapontum Agrobios Plant Biotechnology Unit / ITALY
• Peter ROGOWSKY / Reproduction et Développement des Plantes FRANCE
• Wolfgang WERR / Universitaet zu Köln Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie / GERMANY
• Erhard KRANZ / University of Hamburg Institute for General Botany / GERMANY
• Hugh DICKINSON / University of Oxford Department of Plant Sciences / UNITED KINGDOM
• Giampiero CAI / Universitŕ degli Studi di Siena Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale / ITALY