Genetic improvement of maize to enhance food safety by introducing resistance to Fusarium moniliforme

PROPOSAL: ICA4-2000-30033 ACRONYM SAFEMAIZE
AREA: FP5 - INCO2, 5/ unknown KeyAction Call number / date: -
PROJECT TYPE: Shared Cost EU CONTRIBUTION: 799,999
STARTING DATE: 2001-01-01 DURATION: 36 months

Coordinator: Prof.dr. R. Crewe, University of Pretoria, Botany Department, Lynnwood Road, RSF -0002, Pretoria, South Africa, Republic, Email: ?

Project Description:
Worldwide maize is contaminated by mycotoxins produced by the post-harvest pathogen Fusarium moniliforme that not only reduces crop yield but is also toxic to humans and animals consuming the infected grain. The project objective is to address food safety by developing maize with durable resistance to F moniliforme using two parallel approaches, namely selection for conventional resistance as well as molecular genetic techniques. Field and glasshouse screening methods will be developed to select resistant genotypes adapted to both Europe and Africa. Concomitantly, maize will be engineered with four available plant anti-fungal genes and the resultant transgenic maize evaluated in field trials. In addition, improvement of a plant anti-fungal gene will be carried out by in vitro directed evolution.

Project URL: not known

Consortium:
Co-ordinator: Contact Person: Crewe, Robin (Professor) Department: Botany Department Organisation: University of Pretoria Lynnwood Road 0002 PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27-12-4202478 Fax: +27-12-4203890 Robin.Crewe@bioagric.up.ac.za Participants Contact Person: BLASI, Carlo (Professor) Department: DEPARTMENT OF PLANT BIOLOGY - FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCES Organisation: University of Rome "La Sapienza" 2 Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185 ROMA ITALY Contact Person: LAVIOLA, Angelo (Dr) Department: SEZIONE DI BERGAMO Organisation: Istituto Sperimentale per la Cerealicoltura Via Stezzano 24 24126 BERGAMO ITALY Contact Person: TERBLANCHE, Petro (Dr) Department: DIVISION OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Organisation: CSIR - Council for Scientific and Industrial Research PO Box 395 0001 PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA Contact Person: VAN ZYL, Hendrik (Dr) Department: ROODEPLAAT VEGETABLE AND ORNAMENTAL PLANT INSTITUTE Organisation: Agricultural Research Council X1 KwaMhlanga-Moloto Road (R573) 0001 PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA Contact Person: HOgENBOOM, Nick (Dr) Organisation: Plant Research International B.V. Droevendaalsesteeg 1 6700 AA WAGENINGEN NETHERLANDS Contact Person: MWAPE, Faustin (Dr) Department: CROP SCIENCE DEPARTMENT Organisation: University of Zambia Great East Road Campus 10101 LUSAKA ZAMBIA


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