Risk assessment of GM stacked events obtained from crosses between GM events

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The European Ryegrass Core Collection: A Tool to Improve the Use of Genetic Resources

A core collection of 162 populations of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) native to 18 European countries, is being evaluated across Europe in a multi-country trial. Each participating country contributed the lesser of 10% or 25 accessions from its collection of native populations. The accessions are being grown at 18 sites in 17 countries. Quick, cheap protocols were developed for evaluation. Preliminary results are presented for performance during the first winter. Populations of northern origin showed uniformly low winter damage and low winter growth at all evaluation sites. Populations of Mediterranean origin were more affected by the environment used for evaluation, developing higher winter yield at sites with mild winters, lower winter yield where winters were colder, and suffering severe damage at sites with the coldest winters

RvP varieties: the result of many decades of experience and of updated knowledge

Creating good varieties of allogamous seed-born plants is a curious activity. Initially continuous and sequential cycles of selection and recombination are involved. Testing the value of the created novelties is a second step and finally the sequence ends with seed multiplication. This paper describes how R.v.P. creates varieties of cruciferous crops, salsify, chicory, clover, fodderbeets and foddergrasses. The article is written in Dutch

How can forage production in Nordic and Mediterranean Europe adapt to the challenges and opportunities arising from climate change?

Climate change and its effects on grassland productivity vary across Europe. The Mediterranean and Nordic regions represent the opposite ends of a gradient of changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, with increasingly warmer and wetter winters in the north and increasingly warmer and drier summers in the south. Warming and elevated concentration of atmospheric CO2 may boost forage production in the Nordic region. Production in many Mediterranean areas is likely to become even more challenged by drought in the future, but elevated CO2 can to some extent alleviate drought limitation on photosynthesis and growth. In both regions, climate change will affect forage quality and lead to modifications of the annual productivity cycles, with an extended growing season in the Nordic region and a shift towards winter in the Mediterranean region. This will require adaptations in defoliation and fertilization strategies. The identity of species and mixtures with optimal performance is likelyto shift somewhat inresponse to altered climate and management systems. Itis argued that breeding of grassland species should aimto (i) improve plantstrategies to cope with relevant abiotic stresses and (ii) optimize growth and phenology to new seasonal variation, and that plant diversity at all levels is a good adaptation strategy

Should novel organisms developed using oligonucleotide-mediated mutagenesis be excluded from the EU Regulation

&lt;p&gt;This paper discusses regulatory and safety issues associated with the use of oligonucleotide-mediated mutagenesis and provides scientific arguments for not having organisms developed through this technique fall within the scope of the EU regulation of GMOs.&lt;/p&gt;</p