Harnessing plant reproduction for crop improvement: an introduction to the special issue

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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 will finish 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 this year. 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 shortterm 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). This special issue aims to indicate part of the activities and scientific achievements of the network. Each working group is represented by a review and a few original articles. The individual articles show scientific achievements, collaborations among the various European partners as well as the strong correlation between the various research topics. WG1 worked on female aspects of plant reproduction and embryogenesis including the molecular characterization of meiosis, the analysis of genes expressed during gametogenesis, establishment of polarity, and cell specification as well as embryo patterning and the maternal control of embryo and seed development. Meiosis represents a key process during the initial stages of sexual plant reproduction culminating in the formation of gametes. In their review about the control of the meiotic cell division program in plants, Wijnker and Schnittger (2013) summarize the increasing knowledge on the major meiotic cell cycle players in plants. Moreover, they report that meiotic cell cycle checkpoints in plants are more relaxed compared with animals and thus allows modifications of the meiotic T. Dresselhaus (&) Cell Biology and Plant Biochemistry, Biochemie-Zentrum Regensburg, University of Regensburg, Universitatsstrase 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany e-mail: thomas.dresselhaus@ur.de