Time:   Saturday 28/08/2004 from 9:30 – 12:30

Venue: Norra Latin City Conference Center - Room 461 , Stockholm

Links: Programme EuroScience Open Forum 2004 www.esof2004.org/programme_events/index.asp

EPSO Symposium www.esof2004.org/programme_events/event_detail.asp?eventkey=24

Red light for green biotech? – What would you choose? – Love to talk to you!

Taste … Diversity …. Environment …. Laws … People …. Biomaterial …. Allergies …

Chairs: Dr. Karin Metzlaff, Executive Director EPSO and Prof. Mark Stitt, Director Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany

Talks:

“The delicate balance between production, land use and productivity”, Prof. Wilhelm Gruissem, Director Institute of Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH   Zentrum, Zuerich, Switzerland

“Plant Biotechnology and Novel Products”, Prof. Lothar Willmitzer, Director Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany

“The analysis and use of naturally occurring plant diversity”, Prof. Dani Zamir, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot, Israel

“Plant genomics as a tool in ecology”, Prof. Stefan Jansson, Umea Plant Science Centre University of Umea Sweden

“Innovation in food production – consumer awareness and expectations”, Beate Kettlitz, BEUC (European Consumer Organisation), Brussels, Belgium

“A debate with the public: A case study from the UK”, Prof. Phil Dale, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK

Discussion: Always 5 min. Interim following each talk & 30 min. General Discussion

Summary

Plant genomics is a powerful technology that opens new vistas in plant breeding and biotechnology. It supports directed breeding using transformation technologies. It also, via fine mapping and the use of molecular markers, greatly increases the efficiency of traditional breeding and will greatly accelerate the introduction of natural germplasm into breeding lines.

Many scientists are convinced that these technological advances could aid in ameliorating pressing worldwide problems with respect to the amount and quality of nutrition. By creating new types of products from plants, they could contribute to a shift to increased use of renewable resources. By creating novel physiological characters in plants, they could enable changes in agricultural practise to decrease the impact on the environment. They will also make major contributions to understanding evolution and fitness in plants, and become an integral part of ecosystem research.

The technology is, however, regarded with deep suspicion, if not distaste, by many consumers and policy makers. They fear unforeseen dangers for human health, unpredictable damage to ecosystems, dangers of contamination of bio-products by transgenic material, and an increased potential for domination of farmers (in particular in the developing countries) by multi-internationals.

This symposium will examine the current status of plant genomics, review its potential applications in breeding, biotechnology, in allowing novel agricultural procedures and health treatments, and in ecology, consider the reasons for its mistrust by the public, draw lessons from the previous experience, and discuss what steps need to be taken to ensure its balanced use.

Contact: www.epsoweb.org epso<x>epsomail.org

Speaker Abstracts and CV’s

Wilhelm Gruissem - The delicate balance between production, land use and productivity

Abstract: Mineral nutrient deficiency and food security remain as the most important challenges for developing countries (and surprisingly, for several European countries as well).  Our current projects address these issues in two major staple crops: cassava and rice.

The tropical root crop cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a major source of food for approximately one billion people worldwide.  In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 200 million people rely on cassava as their major source of dietary energy.  Cassava production is threatened by viruses, however, and the nutritional quality of the cassava root is not sufficient to meet all dietary needs.  We have developed transgenic cassava with resistance to African Cassava Mosaic Virus and insects, improved protein levels, and enhanced leaf life and drought resistance. Most lines are currently prepared for field evaluation in Africa and South-America.

Rice is the staple food of 5 billion people in the world. It provides some 20% of the per capita energy and 13% of the protein for human consumption worldwide. In many developing countries, the dietary contributions of rice are substantially greater, 29.3% energy and 29.1% protein, respectively.  The current top six popular mega rice varieties (in terms of popularity and acreage), including Chinese hybrid rice, have an incomplete amino acid profile and contain limited amounts of essential micronutrients.  We have constructed rice lines with improved Fe content using genes for functions in absorption, translocation and accumulation in the plant, as well as bioavailability in the human intestine.  In collaboration with nutritionists in the U.S. and Switzerland, these lines have moved into the evaluation phase.

Wilhelm Gruissem has been full Professor of Plant Biotechnology in the Institute of Plant Sciences at the ETH Zürich since July 1, 2000.
Wilhelm Gruissem was born on March 9, 1952 in Duisburg, Germany. He studied biology and chemistry at the University of Bonn and obtained his Ph.D. in 1979 with Professor Werner Gottschalk at the Institute of Genetics. After two years as research associate at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry, University of Marburg, he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship for research in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA. In 1983 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley as assistant professor of plant biology and was promoted to full professor in 1990. He was Chair of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley from 1993 to 1998, and since 1998 he is Director of a collaborative research programme between the Department and the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute in San Diego. His research focuses on pathways and molecules involved in plant growth control and regulation of chloroplast development.

He is elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, member of learned societies, and on the editorial boards of several professional journals. He received a number of honors and awards for his research programme.

Lothar Willmitzer - Plant Biotechnology and Novel Products

Abstract: Plants are not only a source of food, but are also an essential source of raw material, both as biomass and as specific high-value chemicals. They played a pre-eminent role in the economy before the industrial revolution. Although their relative importance declined during the last 200 years, it must rise again in the next 50 years as we shift to an economy centred on renewable resources. This talk will discuss present and up-coming new strategies for identifying substances in plants, and for altering the levels and spectrum of compounds produced by plants. It will also discuss how such scientific developments can be translated into commercial activity.

Lothar Willmitzer is the Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology and head of the Department Molecular Physiology of Higher Plants. He is professor and his specific research group focuses on central metabolism.

He obtained his Diploma and PhD at Braunschweig Technical University. He got a call to a chair of Molecular Biology at the Free University of Berlin and was scientific director of the Institute of Genetic and Biological Research Ltd. at the same time. He has been appointed as Director of the MPI of Molecular Plant Physiology and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society.

Publications: Ca. 260 publications in scientific journals and books; More than 40 patent applications originated from the institutes under his guidance

Dani Zamir - The analysis and use of naturally occurring plant diversity

Abstract: Unused natural variation can lift yield barriers in plant breeding

Amit Gur and Dani Zamir

The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel

Natural biodiversity is an under-exploited sustainable resource that can enrich the genetic basis of cultivated plants with novel alleles that improve productivity and adaptation. We evaluated the progress in breeding for increased tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) yield using genotypes carrying a pyramid of three independent yield promoting genomic regions introduced from the drought tolerant green-fruited wild species S. pennellii. Yield of hybrids parented by the pyramided genotypes was more than 50% higher than a control market leader variety both under wet and dry fields conditions that received 10% of the irrigation water. This demonstration of the breaking of agricultural yield barriers provides the rational for implementing similar strategies for other agricultural organisms that are important for global food security.

Dani Zamir is a Professor of Genetics at The Hebrew University of  Jerusalem, Faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot. The focus of his research is the genetics of complex traits, using tomato as the model system for the identification of exotic germplasm that codes for improved

productivity. This research has led to the elucidation of key-principles and technologies for quantitative genetic analyses as well as the development of better tasting high yielding tomatoes.

Stefan Jansson - Plant genomics as a tool in ecology

Abstract: Plants are fully autotrophic - they are the only organisms apart from cyanobacteria that are able to grow using only inorganic substrates like carbon dioxide and inorganic nutrients. This means that they are the basis of all life in ecosystems. They also play an important part in ecosystem stability. Their responses are an important determinant of global responses including climate change. One of the major scientific challenges in the next years is to learn how the sophisticated technologies developed in laboratory experiments can be adapted and applied to understand key questions affecting ecosystems.

The analysis of plants in the field in the past was largely descriptive. This talk will discuss how genomics techniques allow a causal analysis of plant responses in the field. It will consider how these approaches can be used to relate these responses to the genetic and environmental factors. It will consider how genomics datasets can be integrated with data about the climatic conditions and soil conditions in a multidiscliplinary approach to understand plant behaviour in the field.

Stefan Jansson is Professor in Plant Cell and Molecular Biology at Umeå Plant Science Centre, Umeå University, and has been working with the genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology of photosynthesis but also adressed questions about natural variation plant performance under natural conditions, using genomics.

Beate Kettlitz - Innovation in food production – consumer awareness and expectations

Abstract: Plant genomics plays an important role in the innovation of food production. The science, its application and the reisk and benefit perception of consumers are all equally important components that influence each other and determine the future development of plant genomics in Europe.

This talk will focus on the consumer awareness and expectations of new technologies. The importance of linking communication, assessment and management within the risk analysis process, which should ideally include the consideration of risks and benefits for all involved, will be explained. Most importantly, the speaker will then propose how to bridge the gap between science and consumers – for instance discuss when information of consumers should take place and the role of other stakeholders.

Beate Kettlitz After finishing her studies of food chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin, in 1975, Beate Kettlitz worked at the Hygiene Inspection Services in Potsdam and was there in charge of foodstuffs.

These tasks mainly included operative services - such as control of food producing facilities, stores, kitchens, producing meals for hospitals, school's and other facilities, to check for good hygiene practices and to give advice.

After the successful achievement of a special professional certificate in the field of hygiene practice in 1978, she continued her professional engagement in the Regional Hygiene Institute of Potsdam.  She became responsible for the control and professional advice for dairy products, dietetic products, baby food and other foodstuffs as field and later department manager.

After her arrival in Brussels in 1991 she worked as an adviser on technical regulatory aspects for the food industry.

As of May 1999, Beate Kettlitz started her professional carrier as a food officer at BEUC.

Philip J Dale - A debate with the public: A case study from the UK

Abstract: A national public debate in the UK indicated that there has been a swing of opinion against the commercial use of transgenic plants.  This talk will consider the reasons for this perceived change of opinion.  It will consider which of the reasons for this were generated by the way the new technology was applied, and which could not have been influenced by scientists.  It will then discuss what steps need to be taken in the future.

Philip J Dale is Leader of the Genetic Modification and Biosafety Research Group at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.   He worked in agriculture for several years before graduating in Agricultural Botany and obtaining a doctorate in Plant Genetics.  Following a period of plant breeding and genetics research at the former Welsh Plant Breeding Station (1972-85), he became Research Group Leader at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge (1985-90), where he was involved in the first field experiments with GM crops in the UK (1987 onwards) and led several UK and EU research programmes on the biosafety assessment of GM crops. He moved to the John Innes Centre in Norwich in 1990 and currently leads several research programmes on GM crops, primarily studying the behaviour and stability of GM crops and their environmental and food safety.  From 1993 to 1999, he was a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE).  In 1998 he became a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes and was appointed Deputy Chair in 2002.  In 2000 he joined the newly-formed Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission, to provide the UK Government with independent strategic advice on developments in biotechnology and their implications for agriculture and the environment.    He was a member of the GM Public Debate Steering Board, the GM Science Review Pane and advised the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit on GM crops.  He was awarded an honorary professorship at the University of East Anglia in August 2000, became a Fellow of the Institute of Biology in 2002 and was appointed as Honorary Professor linked to the Department of Law at the University of Sheffield in 2003

Karin Metzlaff is Executive Director of the European Plant Science Organisation, EPSO, Gent/BE, from its founding 2000 on. She works with the EPSO members (academic institutions), industry and consumer observers and members of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the advisers to the Council of Research and Competitiveness (CREST).

She managed EU plant research projects (basic biological processes and functional genomics) and the European Plant Biotechnology Network (EPBN) in FP4 and FP5 as project manager (AMICA, JIC, UK).

She has post-doctoral experience at the John Innes Centre Norwich (photorespiration, developmental biology), the Federal Health Office in Germany (molecular biology of animal pathogen bacteria), the Martin-Luther University Halle (Molecular biology and plant species on natural and contaminated biotopes). She obtained her PhD and diploma at the Martin-Luther University Halle (plant genetics and molecular biology) and studied biochemistry there.

Mark Stitt is Professor, Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (since 2000). Members of his department work on metabolic networks, his research group focuses on system regulation. The group uses a systems-oriented approach to look at how biochemical pathways involved in primary carbon and nitrogen metabolism and primary and secondary metabolism are integrated and regulated. They are developing sensitive high-throughput cycling assays for enzymes and metabolites, and a suite of growth conditions to reveal the impact of changes in carbon and nutrient status on growth and development. Tobacco, potato, and Arabidopsis thaliana are the main plants used in these investigations.

He is full Professor for botany Heidelberg Univ. (1991). Mark held a Fiebiger professorship for plant biochemistry Bayreuth Univ. (1986), studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge Univ./England and received the PhD there (1978). He was born in Bedford/England 1953.

Related Material

Technology Platform (attached): “Plants for the Future: a European vision for plant biotechnology towards 2025”, June 2004

www.epsoweb.org/catalog/TP/Plant%20gen-brochure-v04-230604-out%20EC.pdf

Press releases: www.epsoweb.org/Catalog/TP/tp_press.htm

EASAC report: “Genomics and crop plant science in Europe”, May 2004

http://www.easac.org/CPG%20report_fin5.pdf

FAO report: “The State of Food and Agriculture 2003 – 2004”,  May 2004 http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/Y5160E/Y5160E00.HTM

Press release: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2004/41714/index.html