To match the increase in demand of cereals in the next 50 years, wheat yield has to be improved by 2% per year. This challenge will be met only if a new paradigm is built in wheat breeding and agronomic practices. Advances in crop productivity are related to the understanding of yield limiting factors and the development of strategies for future genetic improvement. This should be achieved through the advances made by searchers and breeders in two main areas: genotyping and phenotyping. Notable efforts have been applied in recent years to develop numerous cost-effective molecular markers to construct genetic materials suited to the objectives of research programmes and more recently to sequence entire genomes. In spite of these efforts, there has not been much progress in the area of phenotyping, especially in field conditions which is required for the main agronomical traits. Recent developments concentrated on plant phenomics as an emerging field that develops and provides tools such as technologies to: - Characterize plant performance and the dynamics of plant structures and functions - Design a high throughput evaluation of plants in response to desired environmental scenarios, including novel field techniques based on proxi-identification. The precise measurements of phenotypic characters is of paramount importance to discover genes that explain such complex traits. Right now, the main development has been made in controlled environments as greenhouses and not in the field. In this project named PHENOBLE, we propose to build a first platform adapted to fine and accurate phenotyping with a new set of tools. This platform will be dedicated to bread wheat and will aim to decipher the genetic factors involved in genotype x environment interactions regarding nitrogen uptake. PHENO BLE will aim to validate, adapt and improve available new phenotyping tools by evaluating a collection of wheat elite lines under different nitrogen fertilizer regimes. The project will focus on nitrogen because it represents a very important target for economic, environmental and agronomic reasons. Nitrogen influences characters as leaf area, senescence, chlorophyll content or metabolites content that are among the ones that appear as possibly measurable by new generation phenotyping tools. The main outputs of this project will be not only validated phenotyping tools or platforms usable in breeding or genetics programs but a set of heritable phenotyping traits and markers associated. Acquiring rapidly and dynamically large data sets will able to efficiently carry out association studies that should allow at the end of the project to identify the main genetic determinants of a better nitrogen use efficiency. Both markers and tools will benefit to the scientific and breeding community.

Wheat worldwide production has been steading for the last decade while demand keeps increasing, that is why improving wheat yield and insuring its stability is a priority concern. France produced 34.8 million tons of wheat in 2005, that is 30% of the total European production (EU 25). Our country exports 50% of its production, making it the fifth wheat exporter in the world. Our research programme aims at studying how yield potential can be realized in full. Our collaboration will focus on three approaches (1) the genetic components of yield potential, (2) The influence on yield of major genes involved for varieties adaptation to their environment (3), the effect of heat stress on wheat kernel filling. Yield components: photosynthetic apparatus and reproductive organs development will be studied through the characterisation and fine mapping of QTLs. Association genetics will be used to identify genes associated to these compounds. The influence of major adaptation genes (photoperiod, vernalisation…) will be studied by association genetics. The identification of new genes, the allelic characterisation of known genes and the study of genotypes adaptation according to their allelic content are also included in this approach. Besides, we will conduct precursory work that include the allelic information of a gene in a yield prediction model. Heat stress during kernel development and filling appears to have a critical effect on final yield. On this topic, we are still not ready to launch an ambitious programme that includes genetic analyses: before we shall be capable of phenotyping plant's response to heat stress and check that a genetic variability exists. These are the points we will focus on. Also, still concerning kernel development approach, a QTL linked to thousand kernel weight will be fine mapped, and at least one candidate gene will undergo a functional analysis process.

Nitrogen fertilization plays a key role in the wheat production system for its impact on yield, quality and pollution risks. Under conditions of limited nitrogen supply, grain yield, grain quality and the profit margin of the farmers can be significantly reduced. On the contrary, if too much nitrogen is applied, operational costs, nitrogen losses in water or into the atmosphere, root lodging and foliar diseases can greatly increase. Thus, optimising crop yield and quality while safeguarding the environment, is one of the major challenges of modern agriculture. We believe that improving the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of wheat cultivars will help reaching this aim. Thus, we propose a comprehensive approach in bread wheat and durum wheat to improve our knowledge of NUE in a reduced N environment. Grain yield (GY) and grain quality assessed by the Grain Protein Content (GPC), will be together considered. The project is structured in different parts. (1) First of all, quantitative genetic studies will be design in order to study the negative relation between GPC /GY but also between N absorption after flowering and remobilization. (2) In the course of an ecophysiological study, N distribution in the plant as determined by plant architecture will be evaluated, and its contribution to the GPC/GY relationship will be assessed and parameters relative to the NUE will be re evaluated; (3) Altogether, quantitative studies, transcriptome analysis, gene mapping and RT PCR will allow to select putative candidate genes (4) Finally, functional validation will be established through association studies using a panel of variety made of tetra and hexaploid wheats. New transgenic lines will also be developed at the end of the project. We aim to identify genotypes, chromosomal regions or genes involved in N management with implication in yield traits.

We have identified a number of biologically active chemicals that influence plant growth and development by activating or inhibiting metabolism. The objective of this project is to exploit the potential of these bioregulators by identifying genes, proteins and metabolites that are up- or down-regulated when the chemicals are applied under stress or non-stress conditions and positively influence plant growth and productivity. Since comprehensive genomic resources are available for Arabidopsis thaliana and rice, gene expression in response to ten different active molecules will be analyzed using the Arabidopsis whole genome microarray and equivalent rice resources. Similar analysis of proteome and metabolome profiles will be carried out. Profiles will be compared to the biochemical and morphological effects of bioregulator application, resulting in the identification of genes, proteins and metabolites that indicate improved plant growth. These studies will include cell-based in vitro assays and greenhouse tests. The suitability of these markers will be verified in important crop species. Orthologs will be identified in maize, barley, rapeseed and vegetables using molecular biology techniques and in silico analysis. The crops will then be treated with the appropriate chemicals and assessed for expression profiles as well as biochemical, physiological and morphological characteristics as described above. In addition, chemicals will also be tested under field conditions using maize, barley, rapeseed and vegetables. Universal markers identified in these experiments will be used to establish a cell-based high-throughput assay. Promoters driving the marker genes will be fused to a fluorescent protein and plant expression cassettes will be introduced into Arabidopsis and rice plant suspension cells. The cell-based fluorescence assay will be verified using the already identified bioregulators and will allow the identification of novel or superior compounds that enhance crop yield and quality, which will be of significant benefit for the crop production markets. Moreover, markers for improved plant growth could also be used to select new plant lines with sustainable yield stability under biotic and abiotic stress. The successful implementation of this project will reflect the increasing impact of plant genomics on applied plant biotechnology.