FP6 - 506223 GRAIN LEGUMES - New Strategies to Improve Grain Legumes for Food and Feed

Contacts
Website: www.eugrainlegumes.org




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Life Science and Food Quality : Plant Genetics

Type of Project	Integrated Project
Contract No	FP6 - 506223
Total Cost	24,760 KEuro
EC Contribution	14,220 KEuro
Start Date	10-02-2004
Duration	48 Months

Abstract

This is a large multinational project striving to develop new strategies to enhance the use of grain legumes crops in food for human consumption and animal feed in Europe and beyond.

The EU faces the challenge of providing high quality protein for both animal and human consumption. Europe currently imports about 70% of its plant protein yet much of this could be derived from EU grown Grain Legumes. In the human diet Grain Legumes are beneficial and they provide an excellent source of high quality plant protein for animal feed. Furthermore, legume use in arable crop rotations reduces the need for fertiliser application and acts as a break-crop, reducing the need for pest and disease control. Together this is a unique combination of benefit to the environment. Nevertheless, European farmers mainly because of yield inconsistency underuse grain legumes. Additionally there has been insufficient research into the effects of legume seed composition on the quality of animal feed.

This Project will mobilise and integrate European scientific research on grain legumes to solving these problems, by addressing the following objectives;

• To identify optimal parameters for legume quality and safety, including GMOs while using legumes to develop healthy and sustainable agriculture.
• To investigate variation in grain legume seed composition and the factors affecting it.
• To develop new genetic, genomic, post-genomic and bioinformatic tools to improve and sustain grain legume seed production and quality.

To achieve these objectives the project will integrate an ambitious combination of approaches, including biochemistry, plant & crop physiology, agronomy, plant genomic & breeding, and animal nutritional studies. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the use of state-of-the-art methodologies including genomics and bio informatics, together with transcriptomics and metabolomics.

The programme of work involves four main areas of activity:

• A programme of pure and applied agricultural research
• The coordination of the GLIP work-effort and the dissemination of knowledge from it.
• The formation of a technology transfer platform.
• The maintenance of a training fund to sustain grain legumes research.

Coordinator

John Innes Centre, Crop Genetics, United Kingdom

Partners

• Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, United Kingdom
• Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research Arhus Universitet, Denmark
• Universitaet Hannover, Germany
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V., Germany
• Wageningen Universiteit, Netherlands
• Den Kongelige Veterinaer- Og Landbohoejskole, Denmark
• Department For Environement, Food And Rural Affairs
• Association Europeenne De Recherche Sur Les Legumineuses A Graines, France
• Flanders Interuniversity Institute For Biotechnology, Belgium
• Nutreco Aquaculture Research Centre, Norway
• Instituto Tecnologico Agrario De La Junta De Castilla Y Leon, Spain
• Centre D'etude Et De Recherche Sur L'economie Et L'organisation Des Productions Animales, France
• Confederacion Espanola De Fabricantes De Alimentos Compuestos Para Animales, Spain
• Agrobioinstitute, Bulgaria
• Asociacion Espanola De Leguminosas, Spain
• Associacao Do Instituto De Biologia Molecular E Celular, Portugal
• Biological Research Center of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
• Federal Research Station For Agroecology And Agriculture, Switzerland
• Stichting Instituut Voor De Veevoeding De Schothorst, Netherlands
• ID-Lelystad, Instituut Voor Dierhouderij En Diergezondheid B.V., Netherlands
• Plant Research International B.V., Netherlands
• University Of Murdoch, Australia
• Max Planck Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Wissenschaften E.V., Germany
• Groupe Ecole Superieure D'agriculture D'angers, France
• Genome Research Ltd.
• The Agricultural Research Organisation Of Israel - The Volcani Centre, Israel
• Institut Fuer Pflanzengenetik Und Kulturpflanzenforschung, Germany
• NIAB, United Kingdom
• Plant Breeding And Acclimatization Institute, Poland
• Institute Of Plant Genetics - Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
• Institutet Foer Livsmedel Och Bioteknik Ab, Sweden
• Ceska Zemedelska Universzita V Praze, Czech Republic
• Universidad De Cordoba, Spain
• University Of Dundee
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitaet Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
• Universidad Publica De Navarra, Spain
• Union Nationale Interprofessionnelle Des Plantes Riches En Proteines, France
• University of Reading, United Kindon
• Universidad De Sevilla, Spain
• University of York, United Kingdom
• Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, Hungary
• Genoscope C.N.S. / Consortium National De Recherche En Genomique, France
• Commonwealth Scientific And Industrial Research Organisation, Australia
• Universiteit Gent, Belgium
• Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique, France
• Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Italy
• Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain
• Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
• Forskningscenter Risoe, Denmark
• Universitaet Bielefeld, Germany
• Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, France

Contacts

Contact

• Noel ELLIS / John Innes Institute UNITED KINGDOM