Maize

Plant-KBBE Cornfed - Integration of advanced mapping and phenotyping methods to identify key alleles for building European maize ideotypes

Persons in charge: Eva Bauer, Hildrun Walter
Project duration: 01.04.2009 - 31.03.2012
Project partners:
P1: Alain Charcosset, UMR de Génétique Végétale, Gif-sur-Yvette, FR (INRA)
P2: Albrecht E. Melchinger, Univ. Hohenheim, DE (UH)
P3: Chris-Carolin Schön, Technische Universität München, DE (TUM)
P4: Thomas Altmann, IPK Gatersleben, DE (IPK)
P5: Dominique Brunel, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Evry, FR (INRA-EPGV)
P6: Pedro Revilla, Misión Biológica de Galicia, Pontevedra, ESP (CSIC)
P7: Catherine Giaufrret, Stress Abiotiques et Différenciation des Végétaux cultivés, Mons, FR (INRA Mons)
P8: Francois Tardieu, Laboratoire d’Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux, Montpellier, FR (INRA LEPSE)
P9: Jesus Moreno-Gonzalez, Centro de Investigaciones Agrarias de Mabegondo, La Coruña, ESP (CIAM)
P10: David Caparros-Ruiz, Centre de Recerca en AgriGenomica, Barcelona, ESP (CRAG)
P11: Christophe Tartout, Biogemma, Clermont-Ferrand, FR (Biogemma)
P12: Milena Ouzunova, KWS SAAT AG (KWS)
P13: Pascal Flament, Limagrain Verneuil Holding, Riom, FR (LVH)
P14: Monica Menz, Syngenta S.A.S., Saint-Sauveur, FR (Syngenta)
Project management agency: Project Management Jülich (PTJ)
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Project description:

General project aims:
Following its introduction into Europe in the late 15th early 16th centuries, maize developed unique adaptive features to environmental conditions. These traditional European accessions have proven extremely complementary to American Corn Belt material in terms of heterosis, leading to the major success story of European hybrid maize. After comparison of all possible species, maize has proven to be the most efficient crop to produce high energy feed for animals through whole plant biomass harvested for silage conservation. This is to a large extent due to the unique efficiency of its C4 metabolism. For the same reason, maize also has been acknowledged as a possible solution for energy production for German regions with high water precipitation and 250.000 ha are already cultivated there, mostly with existing silage varieties. Further improvement of whole plant biomass production for both applications requires the identification of key alleles to optimise light interception and conversion into biomass, in particular through cold tolerance for early sowing, rapid leaf growth, and then conversion into biomass. Key alleles need also to be identified to monitor flowering time and plant maturity according to environmental factors and end product use.

Scientific and technological aims of the project:
The project is built so as to provide directly applicable results in terms of alleles discovered at several key loci defining the desired ideotype, along with markers allowing a predictive inference within the main genetic groups considered for breeding and possibly at the species wide level. This is expected first for alleles making it possible to adjust the plant growth cycle and also for biomass composition. It will also settle a unique basis of knowledge regarding the variation of the traits of interest and provide protocols to evaluate these using advanced technologies. Also insight will be gained in the magnitude and organisation of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between and within genetic groups and its consequences for LD mapping. Specific attention will be paid to the organisation and durability of the access to the genetic resources assembled. Also key data obtained in the programs in terms of sequence polymorphism and high density genotyping will remain accessible to the partners of the project and a broader community through a database improved in the duration of the project. It is therefore expected that the resources and data produced will form the core of future cooperative efforts of partners.