Welcome to the MEIOsys Project web site. The general area of our project falls within KBBE2007-1-1-03 (development of genetic systems through a system biology approach). Our project is entitled Systematic Analysis of Factors Controlling Meiotic Recombination in Higher Plants (project acronym: MEIOsys), and is a Collaborative project funded by the European Commission under its Seventh Framework Programme. It brings together nine European participants and is coordinated by the University of Birmingham over five years.
Since their domestication 10,000 years ago cereals and other plant crops have played a crucial role in meeting mankind’s demand for food and non food products. Plants are the basis of many European industries with an annual turnover of more than €1 trillion. Intensive plant breeding has led to improvements in yield, quality and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress. But the development of new approaches to breeding based on the systematic analysis of key biological processes will be necessary to ensure the world’s future nutritional requirements in the face of the combined challenges of population growth and climate change.
Meiosis underpins sexual reproduction in both plants and animals where it is essential for the accurate transmission of chromosomes from generation to generation. We believe recent developments in genomics, bioinformatics and systems modelling in conjunction with functional analyses provide the opportunity to achieve a step-change in our understanding of how meiosis is controlled in the model plant Arabidopsis and to apply this knowledge to crop species.
The project aims to enable crop improvement programmes , domestication of new crops and industrial innovation through its development, not of genetic modification, but of the most advanced strategy to accelerate traditional breeding which has been applied for hundreds of years.
