M3.5 ‐ Organic plant breeding in a systems‐based approach and integration of organic plant breeding in value chain partnerships

Developing organic breeding is a key challenge for the organic sector. It is necessary to better adapt varieties to the specific needs of the organic sector (disease resistance, taste, weed suppressing ability, etc). It is also important to enable the organic sector to face the requirements of the New Organic Regulation (EU 2018/848). From 2036, exemptions to the use non‐organic seeds will not be granted any more (Article 53, Regulation 2018/848). The active participation of breeders, farmers, processors, retailers and traders is crucial to develop organic breeding. They all play a critical role and share the responsibility in upscaling organic plant breeding and ensuring future food security, food quality and climate robust agriculture as well as integrity of the value chain. Even consumers could take part in supporting organic plant breeding with informed purchases. On the 12 of February 2019, IFOAM EU, the Louis Bolk Institute (Netherlands) and FiBL Switzerland co‐organized a workshop ‘Organic plant breeding in a system‐based approach and integration of organic plant breeding in value chain partnership’ as part of the Horizon 2020 project LIVESEED. The workshop took place at the largest organic trade fair at Nürnberg Messe biofach to reach out to different actors of the organic sector. The main objective of this workshop was to gather interested stakeholders across the value chain to discuss the responsibilities and their potential concrete engagements in facilitating organic plant breeding. Organized as a world café workshop 1, the participants had the opportunity to discuss three main issues: - Why should different value chain actors support organic plant breeding? - The advantage of organic plant breeding for the value chain (farmer, processors, traders). - The advantage of organic plant breeding for consumers and society (local and global). This report describes in detail the main conclusion of the discussions held during this workshop

Genetic variation for nutrient use efficiency in maize under different tillage and fertilization regimes with special emphasis to plant microbe interaction

Conservation tillage (no-till and reduced tillage) brings many benefits with respect to soil fertility and energy use, but it also has drawbacks regarding the need for synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. To promote conversation tillage in organic farming systems, crop rotation, fertilization and weed control have to be optimized. In addition, crop varieties are needed with improved nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and high weed competitiveness or tolerance

Importance of appropriate selection environments for breeding maize adapted to organic farming systems

Organic farming systems, characterized by special attention to soil fertility, recycling techniques and low external inputs, gained increased significance in recent years. As a consequence, there is a growing demand for varieties adapted to organic and/or low input farming. The objectives of the present study were to (i) compare the testcross performance of segregating maize (Zea mays) populations under established organic (OF) and conventional farming (CF) systems, (ii) determine quantitative genetic parameters decisive for the selection response under OF vs CF conditions, and (iii) draw conclusions for breeding new varieties optimally adapted to OF. Testcross performance of four different material groups of preselected lines (90 lines per group) derived from early European breeding material was assessed under OF and CF in three different geographic regions in Germany in 2008. Grain yields under OF were 3 to 18% lower than under CF in the individual experiments depending on the test region and, to a lesser extent, on the genetic material. On average, grain dry matter yield under OF was 1077 g m-2 compared to 1186 g m-2 under CF. Phenotypic correlations between OF and CF were small or moderate for grain yield in each of the four material groups (0.22 to 0.45), while strong and highly significant correlations were found for dry matter content (0.89 to 0.94). Genotypes with top grain yields under OF often did not show this superiority under CF and vice versa. Despite considerable heterogeneity of the OF test sites, the heritability for grain yield was in the same order of magnitude under OF and CF. It is concluded that test sites managed by OF are indispensable for making maximum progress in developing maize varieties for these conditions

Participatory cotton breeding for organic and low input farming in Central India

Up to 80% of world’s organic cotton is produced in India. However, involved producers are facing increased difficulties to find suitable cultivars. Few hybrids selected for high input farming and genetically-modified (GM) cotton, which is explicitly excluded in organic farming, are presently dominating the Indian seed market. In addition farmers have lost their traditional knowledge on seed production and hybrid seed needs to be purchased each season

Screening of lupin varieties for organic mixed cropping in Switzerland

Screening of Lupin Varieties for Organic Mixed Cropping in Switzerland

Endogenously expressed nef uncouples cytokine and chemokine production from membrane phenotypic maturation in dendritic cells

Immature dendritic cells (DCs), unlike mature DCs, require the viral determinant nef to drive immunodeficiency virus (SIV and HIV) replication in coculture with CD4+ T cells. Since immature DCs may capture and get infected by virus during mucosal transmission, we hypothesized that Nef associated with the virus or produced during early replication might modulate DCs to augment virus dissemination. Adenovirus vectors expressing nef were used to introduce nef into DCs in the absence of other immunodeficiency virus determinants to examine Nef-induced changes that might activate immature DCs to acquire properties of mature DCs and drive virus replication. Nef expression by immature human and macaque DCs triggered IL-6, IL-12, TNF-α, CXCL8, CCL3, and CCL4 release, but without up-regulating costimulatory and other molecules characteristic of mature DCs. Coincident with this, nef-expressing immature DCs stimulated stronger autologous CD4+ T cell responses. Both SIV and HIV nef-expressing DCs complemented defective SIVmac239 delta nef, driving replication in autologous immature DC-T cell cultures. In contrast, if DCs were activated after capturing delta nef, virus growth was not exacerbated. This highlights one way in which nef-defective virus-bearing immature DCs that mature while migrating to draining lymph nodes could induce stronger immune responses in the absence of overwhelming productive infection (unlike nef-containing wild-type virus). Therefore, Nef expressed in immature DCs signals a distinct activation program that promotes virus replication and T cell recruitment but without complete DC maturation, thereby lessening the likelihood that wild-type virus-infected immature DCs would activate virus-specific immunity, but facilitating virus dissemination