Axis 4

Plant biology has largely benefited from the extensive genetic and genomic resources (e.g. mutants or transformants, genome sequences, natural variability, RIL populations etc.) developed first for Arabidopsis and that are now available for most of the important crop species (e.g. maize, rice, tomato, grape, barley, wheat or rapeseed). New technologies allow sequencing the genomes of specific “accessions” or mutants, the RNA repertoire, or the products of ChIP or transcription factor binding sites. Given the increase in analytical tools throughput, more mathematics and informatics are necessary. We need to develop modelling tools, providing an integrated, simplified view of the plant. Simultaneously, analyzing an increasing amount of data (NST or live imaging for instance) raises the issue of data storage and availability of the data and necessary software tools in a form that is easy to access by a wide range of non-expert researchers. Biotechnology in general and more especially genetic engineering are powerful tools that open up many possibilities for plant modification and crop improvement. Complementary to conventional techniques of selection, these technologies have specific important characteristics. For example, transgenic technology can increase the diversity and the origin of the characters used. It is not limited to sexually compatible species, or even to the plant kingdom. Moreover, biotechnology and genetic engineering are not limited to transgenesis, applications are already envisaged in the fields of mutagenesis (specific plant gene modification), or epigenetics (characters obtained without genetic modification).

To summarize some of the key issues

• Developing new biological resources (mutants, plasmid library etc.)
• Equipments and infrastructures for high throughput phenotyping (biochemical, imaging, etc.)
• New sequencing technologies and transcriptomics
• Computing for high throughput analyses and modelling, databases
• Biotechnology and prevalorisation projects
• Tools for translational biology (e.g. testing in field or TILLING collections).