Harnessing Plant Reproduction for Crop Improvement. Four Years of COST Action Led to a Successful Story

The European Plant Reproduction Network (Harnessing Plant Reproduction for Crop Improvement (HAPRECI)) was established in 2009 with financial support through the COST Action program of the European Commission. Its major goal was to stimulate research on plant reproduction in Europe and to combine interrelated and multidisciplinary expertise of the various laboratories. Scientific goals aimed to understand the molecular mechanisms of sexual and apomictic plant reproduction, and to facilitate the use of this knowledge in the development of new approaches in biotechnology, agriculture, and food industry through improved crops. Further goals aimed to promote interaction between fundamental and applied research areas, and to train young researchers in various methods and disciplines. Eighty-seven laboratories from 28 countries participated in the network.

After four successful years, the action ended in October 2013 with a final network meeting in Oslo. In addition to annual meetings at Brussels (2009), Bristol (2010), Valencia (2011), and Porto (2012), a number of smaller focused workshops and summer training schools were organized. These included a Hypericum workshop in Austria, five PhD schools on plant reproduction associated with flower and vegetative development, plant breeding, and apomixis, respectively, which took place in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy as well as a training school on metabolomics and plant breeding that was organized in Italy in 2013. The aim of the schools was to train young investigators in state-of-the-art methodologies employed for understanding plant reproduction and to improve crops. Therefore, additionally, a number of short term scientific missions (STSMs) were facilitated to exchange PhD students and young postdocs among partner laboratories for the purposes of training, collaborative research, and to promote innovative interactions.

The HAPRECI network was subdivided into three working groups with a focus on female gametophyte development and embryogenesis  (WG1), male gametophyte development and pollen viability  (WG2) as well as apomixis technology development  (WG3).

Results obtained and the possibility for future fundings/callaborations will be presented and discussed.