Michael Metzlaff Crop Productivity Research Bayer BioScience, Gent, Belgium Oktober 2007

Osiris Ägyptischer Gott der Vegetation und des Todes Jahre Domestikation von Pflanzen…

« Landleben » Kupferstich Mittelalter

Current Status of Agriculture (2006) [Source: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications ( challenge to at least double food, feed & fiber production by 2050 and deliver on pledge to reduce poverty/hunger by 50% by 2015 poverty afflicts 1.3 billion people and 852 million suffer from hunger and malnutrition – 24,000 people a day die from malnutrition rice production lower than consumption for the 4th year in a row with reserves at 20 year low, i.e production 402 million MT vs. 418 demand despite increase in crop production world cereal reserves down for the 5th consecutive year to 9% of consumption global crops $1.7 trillion on 1.5 billion hectares of arable land, seed market of $30billion, crop protection $34 billion

“The 21 th Century Challenge” Ensuring attainable crop yield in a sustainable agriculture  a fast growing human population  urgent need for more food/feed production on +/- constant arable land  competition for water  more extreme climatic conditions  contribution to renewable energy In the background of:

WE ARE ENTERING A PERIOD OF MORE INTENSIVE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION Foley Science 309;570

Solar Can provide for 7,000x our current global energy consumption From: Basic Research Needs for Solar Energy Utilization, DOE 2005

PLANTS PRODUCE SUGAR and O 2 FROM SUNLIGHT AND CO 2 Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Sugar StarchCellulose Lignocellulose O2O2

The Earth’s carbon “metabolism” False-colour map - rate at which plants absorbed carbon (C) out of the atmosphere in 2002 Global annual average of net productivity of vegetation on land and in ocean Yellow and red areas show the highest rates (2 to 3 kg C taken in per m 2 per year) Green, blue and purple shades show progressively lower productivity. Source NASA Earth Observatory

The Era of (Systems) Biology Genomics Transcriptomics RNAi Proteomics Metabolomics

Bioenergy Research: An Opportunity to Contribute to Sustainability and to Wealth Creation

GLOBAL ENERGY SOURCES 2006

SOURCE BP

EU27 BIODIESEL PRODUCTION EUROPEAN BIODIESEL BOARD

US Biomass inventory = 1.3 billion tons Forest 12.8% Urban waste 2.9% Manure 4.1% Grains 5.2% Crop residues 7.6% Soy 6.2% Wheat straw 6.1% Corn stover 19.9% Perennial crops 35.2% From: Billion ton Vision, DOE & USDA 2005 ~ 3 tons/acre

Starch, Sugars, Oils 1 st Generation Biofuels also food source corn, sugarcane, sugar beet, wheat easily fermented to ethanol or extracted directly for biodiesel production Cell Wall Materials 2 nd Generation Biofuels cellulose and lignocellulose abundantly produced not a food source Miscanthus, switch grass, poplar, willow perennial grasses difficult to break down can be fermented to 2 nd generation biofuels Plants are mostly composed of sugars in several different forms:

A DOE Ethanol Vision Grain Cellulose Year Ethanol (Billions of gal/yr) EXISTINGEMERGING Sugar Platform -New Enzymes -Pretreatment -Fermentation ADVANCED Fundamental Advances in Lignocellulose Processing and fermentation Modified from Richard Bain, NREL

WILLOW IS WELL ADAPTED FOR GROWTH IN NORTHERN EUROPE HIGH YIELD SHORT ROTATION COPPICING EXCELLENT BREEDING RESOURCES PEST AND DROUGHT TOLERANCE BRANCHING GENES IDENTIFIED WILLOW

MISCANTHUS GIGANTEUS (ELEPHANT GRASS) PERRENIAL- CAPTURES MORE SOLAR ENERGY C4 PHOTOSYNTHESIS- MORE EFFICIENT HIGH YIELDING- CURRENTLY 16 ODT/HA/YR VERY LOW INPUTS- REMOBILISATION OF RESERVES TO STORAGE RHIZOME HARVEST DRY STALKS IN SPRING POTENTIAL FOR IMPROVING BIODIVERSITY

Advancing Science with DNA Sequence Mono- & oligomers Glucose, fructose, sucrose Acetate Fermentation pathways H 2 & CO 2 Fermentation pathways Cellulases Hemicellulases Termites have many specialized enzymes for efficiently digesting lignocellulosic material

MAINTAINING BIODIVERSITY

Thank you for your attention!