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GL-TTP is an international Technology Transfer Platform created by the Grain Legumes Integrated Project primarily to work at the integration, assessment and commercial exploitation of the results of GLIP research. GL-TTP will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies between research and industry in order to boost the production of grain legumes.

The mission of GL-TTP is to provide enabling tools in order to:
1. increase grain legume production through the use of more robust varieties and improved crop management,
2. improve and diversify grain legume products for the feed and food industry through better grain quality and new processing techniques.

GL-TTP will initially focus on the interaction between research scientists and plant breeders in order to facilitate and expedite the genetic improvement of grain legume varieties to suit the needs expressed by the grain legume producers and end-users.

The privileged access of GL-TTP to the molecular tools and discoveries generated by GLIP will directly benefit the members of the platform. Notably, GL-TTP will distribute and adapt genomic technologies to:

1. characterise the genetic diversity kept in germplasm banks, so that plant breeders can choose genetic resources based on defined genetic criteria to enlarge the genetic basis of their breeding pools and introduce new genetically-defined traits of interest

2. generate targeted genetic diversity for breeders when available genetic resources are too narrow (this can be done without the controversial use of Genetically Modified Organisms)

3. identify new genes potentially involved in a trait of agronomic interest thanks to sequencing projects and expression profiling studies

4. validate the function of those candidate genes using high-throughput functional screens,

5. generate molecular markers, or ‘tags’ to these genes, so that plant breeders can use high-throughput genomic screens to select for superior plants.


For each technology transfer, GL-TTP will provide technical support. Workshops are in the pipeline for plant breeders eager to learn new technologies and how to exploit the wealth of genomic data publically available on the internet. GL-TTP will also provide its members with assistance for the integration of marker-assisted selection in their breeding programmes.

Importantly, GL-TTP will initiate a European research project to investigate the cost-effectiveness of marker-assisted selection, from the field to the lab and back to the field, so that plant breeders are ensured of the economic relevance of including molecular techniques in their breeding strategy.

Upon multi-disciplinary surveys, GL-TTP will develop an integrated grain legume database that will be instrumental in the definition of technology transfer programmes and useful as a source of information for scientists and industrialists.

GL-TTP is set up to work in close collaboration with AEP. Consequently, GL-TTP will benefit from the network of the international grain legume community developed by AEP during the last twelve years. AEP and GL-TTP will share strength to animate grain legume research throughout the network. GL-TTP will complement AEP by facilitating the exploitation of the results of grain legume research by industrialists.

GL-TTP adopts a strategy to stimulate cooperation between grain legume organisations so that services and technology transfers can be set up more efficiently and at reduced costs for individual actors at every step of the transfer.

GL-TTP is a not-for-profit association under the French law, so-called ‘Association loi 1901’. The detailed structure and organisation of GL-TTP is described in its official statutes, available on demand at gl-ttp@prolea.com.

Until elections take place at the first General Assembly in Montpellier in February 2006, the GL-TTP Council and Executive Committee will be composed of the eleven founding members of GL-TTP. After the General Assembly, the elected GL-TTP Council will be composed of two balanced sections that will represent the interests of science and industry with equal weight. In this way, the Council will orient the activities of GL-TTP according to the wishes of both research scientists and industrialists.

Membership is now open to research organisations and grain legume industries that want to contribute to, and benefit from, the international network of the GL-TTP. More information on GL-TTP and how to become a GL-TTP member is available at www.gl-ttp.com.

Catherine Golstein, GL-TTP Scientific Manager.
Email: c.golstein@gl-ttp.com