Project description DEENESFRITPL An innovative genome-editing approach to precision plant breeding Increasing global population combined with the impacts of climate on agriculture have put additional stress on food security. Recent record-high food prices have added to this global crisis of food insecurity and malnutrition. Expanding fundamental knowledge of enzymes and gene regulation in plants will support the scientific ability to enhance output and address this crisis. Within this context and with the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the COLORnamental project will exploit an innovative horticultural precision breeding approach based on gene editing and focused on flower colour. Its outcomes will have wide-reaching applications, from ornamental breeding of beautiful flowering plants to enhancing global food security. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective The COLORnamental team comprises a promising Experienced Researcher (ER) in the field of horticulture and molecular breeding and her future supervising team, i.e. an academic beneficiary in Austria, an associated partner from the commercial horticultural industry in Germany and an academic associated partner in Germany hosting a 6 month secondment. Together they have defined an innovative and challenging research project that offers a well-balanced mixture of research at the interface of fundamental and applied research addressing promising opportunities in the non-academic sector and scientific hot-spots in plant research simultaneously. An innovative breeding approach will exploit flower colour as an established model to implement for the first time the use of MAD7 nucleases in ornamental breeding, and protoplast transformation to modify the bract colour of poinsettia. The genome editing approach addresses the substrate specificity of dihydrolflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) and will promote the accumulation of orange pelargonidin based pigments. Flavonoids, including the colourful anthocyanins, are the most important secondary metabolites, contributing a broad range of physiological functions in plants and humans, the latter when consumed as plant derived food. This makes them an attractive topic for industry and academia across many research fields. The pathway has always served as an important model to establish fundamental scientific knowledge of enzymes, gene regulation in plants and a variety of evolutionary processes. This will allow the ER to augment her expertise with knowledge that is seen as the future of food security, while herself imparting a new perspective to her hosts. A tailor-made training plan, composed of scientific key transferable skills elements for public and private sector employment (research management, presentation and language skills) was designed to empower the ER to move up the career ladder. Fields of science engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcolorsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biology Programme(s) HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme Topic(s) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01-01 - MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 Call for proposal HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-AG-UN - HORIZON Unit Grant Coordinator TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN Net EU contribution € 249 301,20 Address Karlsplatz 13 1040 Wien Austria See on map Region Ostösterreich Wien Wien Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 Partners (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all KLEMM AND SOHN GMBH AND CO KG Germany Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Hanfacker 10 70378 Stuttgart See on map Region Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart Stuttgart, Stadtkreis Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00 JULIUS KUHN-INSTITUT BUNDESFORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FUR KULTURPFLANZEN Germany Net EU contribution € 0,00 Address Erwin-baur-strasse 27 06484 Quedlinburg See on map Region Sachsen-Anhalt Sachsen-Anhalt Harz Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
