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Does plant breeding always have to mean genetic modification? A new research project at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology is pursuing a novel approach to plant breeding. As part of her ERC-funded GRAFT project, supported with €2.5 million, Prof. Dr. Claudia Köhler is developing a method to switch genes on or off in a targeted way without altering the plant’s DNA sequence itself. The innovation lies in combining tradition with cutting-edge technology: through grafting, molecular signals from the roots will be used to pre-program traits of the next plant generation in flowers.
Plant genes largely determine how plants develop, how large their fruits become, and whether they are resistant or susceptible to diseases and climate change. For this reason, breeders have always selected plants with preferred traits—and thus also the genes responsible for those traits. As a result, many of our crop plants today have little in common with their wild ancestors. Whereas plant breeders in the past depended on random genetic changes in a plant generation in order to select desired traits, modern genetic engineering methods now make it possible to modify genes in a targeted manner.
The research group led by Prof. Dr. Claudia Köhler at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology is now investigating a fundamentally different approach. The group aims to control plant traits without changing the plants’ gene sequences.
All living organisms can switch their genes on or off as needed. This is what enables different structures and organs to develop. Although all cells in an organism contain the same genetic information, different genes are active in a leaf than in a root or a flower. How this complex gene activity is controlled is the subject of cutting-edge research.
In the GRAFT project, funded by the European Research Council with €2.5 million, the research group Epigenetic Mechanisms of Plant Reproduction is investigating how signals from a plant’s roots can be used to switch genes in the reproductive organs on or off in a targeted way—without changing the genes themselves. To do this, the scientists are making use of an ancient method of plant refinement: grafting. The ambitious goal is to combine traditional plant grafting with state-of-the-art molecular biology to enable a new form of plant breeding—one that does not alter the plants’ genes themselves, but instead regulates their activity, thereby pre-programming traits in the following generation.
Such a method is ground breaking because it could potentially make it possible to change plant traits in a targeted way within just one generation, without the plants themselves being genetically modified. The new approach could be particularly significant for the breeding of crop plants with generation times of several years, such as fruit trees or grapevines, in which grafting has been established for centuries.
Through its Advanced Grants, the European Research Council (ERC) supports ambitious research projects by leading scientists with the potential for major scientific breakthroughs. With a success rate of less than ten percent, these grants are among the most competitive and prestigious funding programmes in the European Union. This year, only 319 of a total of 3,329 submitted research proposals were funded.
Prof. Dr. Claudia Köhler is Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam Science Park and heads the Department of Plant Reproductive Biology and Epigenetics since 2021. Her work focuses on the processes underlying plant reproduction and seed development.
Prof. Dr. Claudia Köhler
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology
Tel. 0331/567 8100
Koehler@mpimp-golm.mpg.de
https://www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2591770/dep_8 - department webpage
Prof. Dr. Claudia Köhler
Quelle: MPI-MP
Copyright: MPI-MP
Flower of a tomato plant
Quelle: Kai Wang
Copyright: MPI-MP - Kai Wang
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Biologie, Ernährung / Gesundheit / Pflege, Tier / Land / Forst, Umwelt / Ökologie
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Forschungsprojekte
Englisch
Prof. Dr. Claudia Köhler
Quelle: MPI-MP
Copyright: MPI-MP
Flower of a tomato plant
Quelle: Kai Wang
Copyright: MPI-MP - Kai Wang
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