Ghent, Belgium
June 11, 2008
The changes in our climate,
producing extreme temperatures or persistent drought, have an
enormous impact on our crops − to put it briefly, the crops are
experiencing stress. VIB has now
concluded a research agreement with
Bayer BioScience NV,
the Flemish agro-biotech innovation center of Bayer CropScience,
to look into this problem. Through this collaboration, the
researchers aim to elucidate the mechanisms that indicate how
plants handle stress. The results that will come from this
research − in particular, the identification of factors that
make a plant ‘stress-resistant’ − are crucially important for
the development of agricultural crops with higher yield. This
research is being made possible by an approved IWT project
submitted by Bayer BioScience. The project gives both research
centers the chance to apply the special knowledge that they have
developed in the area of ‘stressed plants’.
Plants and stress
All over the world, today’s agriculture is contending with huge
losses due to extreme weather conditions. Our crops are being
exposed to high temperatures, too little or too much
precipitation, late ground frost, and other stress factors.
Depending on the intensity of this plant stress, as much as 80%
of the harvest can be destroyed. Furthermore, according to
experts, weather conditions will become only more extreme in the
coming years. In contrast to animals, plants are unable to
escape an unfavorable living environment and must live their
lives on the spot where they have germinated. So, it’s very
fortunate that plants have developed mechanisms for detecting
and dealing with stress.
Bayer CropScience − a leading agro-biotech company
Bayer CropScience’s BioScience division plays a prominent
international role in the development and commercialization of
seeds for agricultural crops. The company uses plant
biotechnology and refinement techniques to develop varieties
specially adapted to the requirements of tomorrow’s agriculture.
Recently, Bayer BioScience submitted a research project to the
IWT concerning elucidating the molecular mechanisms that plants
use in stress conditions, and this project has now been
approved.
Dr. Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, Head of BioScience Research
for Bayer CropScience: “Breeding crop varieties with improved
resistance against abiotic stresses − such as drought, heat or
cold − is an urgent need in the upcoming decades of climate
change, diminished availability of arable land, and an
ever-growing demand for food, feed and biomass. To identify the
key genes underlying stress tolerance, genome-wide gene function
studies and highly efficient plant testing procedures have to be
carried out. With the VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology,
UGent, and its world-renowned expertise in the plant sciences,
we have found an ideal partner for complementing our in-house
research. The department’s close proximity to us (in Ghent’s
Technology Park) is also an advantage.”
VIB − among the top in plant research worldwide
The project will be carried out in close collaboration with the
VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, UGent. The department
is one of the world’s top research centers in plant research and
has built a strong reputation with industrial partners. VIB
scientist Frank Van Breusegem and his research group have years
of expertise in the area of plant stress. This new project
builds further on a research agreement made in 2004 regarding
‘stress in plants’.
This is a ‘win-win’ collaboration for the two partners: Bayer
CropScience can make use of VIB’s world-class expertise, while
VIB has the opportunity to convert its strategic basic research
into products useful to society.
Prof. Dr. Dirk Inzé, Scientific Director of the VIB Department
of Plant Systems Biology, UGent: “It is abundantly clear that,
in the coming years, the pressure on food production will
increase dramatically all over the world. So it’s absolutely
vital to apply the latest insights to developing crops that
produce a higher yield and are more resistant to adverse growing
conditions like drought. With Bayer CropScience, we have an
ideal partner that will translate the innovative fundamental
research of the VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology at Ghent
University into applications used worldwide.”
VIB, the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, is a
non-profit research institute in the life sciences. Some 1100
scientists and technicians conduct strategic basic research on
the molecular mechanisms that control the functioning of the
human body, plants, and micro-organisms. Through a close
partnership with four Flemish universities − Ghent University,
the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the University of Antwerp,
and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel − and a solid investment
program, VIB unites the forces of 65 research groups in a single
institute. Their research aims at fundamentally extending the
frontiers of our knowledge. Through its technology transfer
activities, VIB strives to convert the research results into
products for the benefit of consumers and patients. VIB also
develops and distributes a broad range of scientifically
substantiated information about all aspects of biotechnology.
More info at: www.vib.be.
Frank Van Breusegem leads the ‘Oxidative
Stress and Cell Death’ research group in the VIB Department
of Plant Systems Biology, UGent, under the direction of Dirk
Inzé. |
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