GenXPro GmBH,FIZ, Altenhöferallee 3,60438 Frankfurt am Main, GermanyMini-biographyDr. Peter Winter (53) is co-founder and General Manager of GenXPro GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany. During his career, Peter gained a broad spectrum of experience in molecular genomics and genetics in plants and human. His current research focuses on the regulation of stress-responses in plants and on the genetics underlying genotypic differences in their responses to the environment. As a co-worker of Günter Kahl, Peter developed the most extended genetic map of chickpea available to date. Peter is the co-ordinator of the ERA-PG LEGRESIST project which comprises 14 leading European laboratories. LEGRESIST aims at elucidating the genetics of pathogen resistance in all major European legumes and at the development of molecular resistance breeding tools. Peter’s company GenXPro develops and offers products and services for a wide range of applications in all life sciences and cooperates with medical research institutions (INSERM, Medical University of Hannover, University of Cordoba) as well as with National and International Agricultural Research Centres (ICARDA, ICRISAT, INAT, INRA, BAZ etc.) and private and academic research organisation around the world.
Peter strongly supports GL-TTP activities, because he feels that those breakthrough technologies developed in science need rapid and efficient application for crop improvement to ensure safe and growing supply of food for a growing world population also under conditions of global warming.
SuperTags, chips and markers: new tools to serve knowledge-based crop improvementPeter Winter
GenXPro GmbH, Frankfurt Innovation Centre Biotechnology, Altenhöferallee 3, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
pwinter@genxpro.deRecent advances in biotechnology provide deep insights into molecular mechanisms underlying traits of agronomic relevance in model plants and crops. SuperTag technology, GenXPro’s advanced version of SuperSAGE (Matsumura et al. 2003, PNAS 100:15718-15723), now enables whole-genome transcriptome profiling of unprecedented accuracy at affordable costs. Further, this technology is the only open-architecture, high-throughput technology demonstrated to reveal the interacting transcriptomes of a plant host and its pathogen during their interaction under natural conditions. Using SuperTag, profiling of more than 360.000 SuperTags from chickpea and lentil identified more than 3000 stress-responsive transcripts including hundreds of transcripts for signalling molecules (TFs, MAPKs etc), and antisense transcripts with potential regulatory function.
The instant translation of SuperTag profiling results into customized, dedicated SuperTag micro-arrays (SuperTag-arrays, Matsumura et al. 2006, Nature Methods 3:469-474) for high-throughput screening of germplasm and offspring allows selection of breeding material and improved varieties based on molecular phenotypes adding substantially to the repertoire of decision-making tools for breeders.
Here, we demonstrate the use of this technology for dissecting the reaction of legumes to stresses into molecular components and discuss prospects for the development of targeted molecular markers from differentially expressed genes. These may then serve for the generation of high-density, gene-based expression marker maps using high-throughput SNP detection technologies. The combination of such maps with expression(e)QTL analysis using SuperTag-arrays will certainly become a standard technology platform for advanced plant breeding in near future.
To implement established technologies into breeding programmes and research projects and advance those under development, GenXPro very much welcomes co-operations with interested parties worldwide. Therefore, do not hesitate to contact us.
