Technical assistance in the field of risk communication

This report assesses peer-reviewed and grey literature on risk communication concepts and practices, as requested by the European Commission to support the implementation of a ‘General Plan for Risk Communication’, i.e. an integrated framework for EU food safety risk assessors and risk managers at Union and national level, as required by the revised EU General Food Law Regulation. We conducted a scoping review of social research studies and official reports in relation to risk communication in the following areas: understanding and awareness of risk analysis roles and tasks, reducing misunderstanding of the different meaning of the terms ‘hazard’ and ‘risk’, tackling misinformation and disinformation, enhancing confidence in EU food safety, taking account of risk perceptions, key factors in trade-offs about risks, audience segmentation and tools, channels and mechanisms for coordinated risk communications. We structured our findings as follows: i) definitions of key concepts, ii) audience analysis and information requirements, iii) risk profiling, models and mechanisms, iv) contributions to communication strategies. We make several recommendations for consideration by the Commission, both in terms of actions to support the design and implementation of the general plan, and research needs that we consider crucial to further inform appropriate risk communication in the EU. EFSA carried out a targeted consultation of experts and a public consultation open to all interested parties including the general public, in preparing and finalising this report

Registration of Gaspé Flint 1.1.1, a small-size early-flowering maize inbred line

Flowering time is one of the most important traits affecting cultivar adaptation and remains of great interest for breeders. Early flowering genetic stocks have been selected and utilized as models for scientific, breeding, and educational purposes. In this study, Gaspé Flint 1.1.1 (GF111; Reg. no. GS-11, PI 698804), a new rapid cycle, diminutive maize (Zea mays L.) inbred line, is described. GF111 was developed by repeated selfing (eight cycles) and selection starting from an open-pollinated accession of the Canadian landrace Gaspé Flint. GF111 can be grown in 1-L pots and is characterized by short stature (0.4–0.8 m), small number of leaves (8.1–9.7), two ears per plant with only one being fertilized, from zero to one tillers, early flowering (41–50 d after sowing and as little as 357 growing degree units), and very limited protandry. High-density molecular marker analysis showed a high level of homozygosity (>96%) and an approximately 30-Mb-long region shared with the maize reference line B73 on chromosome 10. Because of its high homozygosity, rapid generation cycle, easy hand-based pollination, good fertility, and limited growing requirements as to space and resources, GF111 has great potential to be used in genetic and gene functional studies, in phenotypic screenings on phenomics platforms, and for teaching activities in plant biology and breeding

Selecting tomato (Solanum lycopersycon L.) lines for mycorrhizal competence: a prerequisite for breeding the plants of the future.

Recent breeding programs revealed that it is difficult to select varieties for low-input agriculture by starting from conventional varieties. One of the explanations given for this failing is that conventional varieties, selected under high-input conditions, would have lost genes coding for symbiotic competence. For example, conventional varieties generally show a lower capacity to sustain root symbiosis with naturally occurring arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), than needed for low-input agriculture. Such loss in mycorrhizal competence was probably due to breeding in fully fertilized soils, which resulted in the selection for plant genotypes unable to exploit these beneficial microorganisms. Therefore, the goal of our research was to select, among ten mutant lines belonging to a tomato (cv Red Setter) EMS mutant collection, those presenting both a good mycorrhizal competence and a high level of productivity, in order to obtain tomato genotypes adapted to breeding in low-input cropping systems. The wild type line Red Setter, as well as all the 10 mutated ones, showed a characteristic AMF infection dynamics. Some differences were also found in the diversity of root-colonizing AMF taxa. One tomato mutant line was specially mycorrhizal competent, showed high symbiotic precocity and a highly structured symbiotic population. Other mutants were similar to wild type line, and more research is needed to clarify their actual position

Cloning of Vgt3, a major QTL for flowering time in maize

Flowering time is a complex trait important for crop adaptation to local environments and an essential breeding target to face the challenge of global climate change. A major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for flowering time and number of nodes (ND), qVgt3.05 (Vgt3), was previously identified on chromosome 3, bin 3.05, in a maize introgression library (IL) derived from the cross B73 x Gasp\ue9 Flint (recipient and donor genotypes, respectively. Salvi et al. 2011). In order to clone Vgt3, B73 was crossed with its early isogenic line 39-1-2-33 which carries a 17-cM Gasp\ue9 Flint introgression on bin 3.05. Using this cross, Vgt3 showed an addictive effect of 1.4 nodes, explained 56.6% of the phenotypic variance and was mapped within 0.3 cM. For positional cloning, a total of 7,500 F2 plants were phenotyped and genotyped with SNPs and SSR markers flanking the QTL interval. One-hundred recombinants lines were derived and the QTL was further narrowed the target genomic region to a 380-kb interval. A MADS-box gene with no coding sequence variation between the two alleles was found in the physical interval. However, the MADS-box gene RNA expression profile and transgenics testing confirmed its effect on flowering time. We are currently searching for the Vgt3 causative regulatory region by studying chromosome structural variation between the B73 and Gasp\ue9 Flint alleles