title: Challenges facing European agriculture and possible biotechnological solutions.
abstract: Agriculture faces many challenges to maximize yields while it is required to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. In the present study, we analyze the major agricultural challenges identified by European farmers (primarily related to biotic stresses) in 13 countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK and Turkey, for nine major crops (barley, beet, grapevine, maize, oilseed rape, olive, potato, sunflower and wheat). Most biotic stresses (BSs) are related to fungi or insects, but viral diseases, bacterial diseases and even parasitic plants have an important impact on yield and harvest quality. We examine how these challenges have been addressed by public and private research sectors, using either conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection, transgenesis, cisgenesis, RNAi technology or mutagenesis. Both national surveys and scientific literature analysis followed by text mining were employed to evaluate genetic engineering (GE) and non-GE approaches. This is the first report of text mining of the scientific literature on plant breeding and agricultural biotechnology research. For the nine major crops in Europe, 128 BS challenges were identified with 40% of these addressed neither in the scientific literature nor in recent European public research programs. We found evidence that the private sector was addressing only a few of these "neglected" challenges. Consequently, there are considerable gaps between farmer's needs and current breeding and biotechnology research. We also provide evidence that the current political situation in certain European countries is an impediment to GE research in order to address these agricultural challenges in the future. This study should also contribute to the decision-making process on future pertinent international consortia to fill the identified research gaps.
authors.affiliation: a AgroParisTech, Paris and Université Paris-Sud, Collége d'Etudes Interdisciplinaires , Sceaux , France .
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ricroch
authors.affiliation: b Crop Transformation Group, John Innes Centre (JIC) , Norwich Research Park , Norwich , UK .
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Harwood
authors.affiliation: c Institute of Entomology BC AS CR, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia , České Budějovice , Czech Republic .
authors.forename: Zdeňka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Svobodová
authors.affiliation: d Plant Cell Biology Department, Center for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences , Martonvásár , Hungary .
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sági
authors.affiliation: b Crop Transformation Group, John Innes Centre (JIC) , Norwich Research Park , Norwich , UK .
authors.forename: Penelope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hundleby
authors.affiliation: e Biotechnology and Biosecurity Department , Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy , Bucharest , Romania .
authors.forename: Elena Marcela
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Badea
authors.affiliation: f University of Agronomic Science and Veterinary Medicine-Bucharest , Bucuresti , Romania .
authors.forename: Ioan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rosca
authors.affiliation: g APOSOLO - Associação Portuguesa de Mobilização e Conservação do Solo , Évora , Portugal .
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.affiliation: h Laboratory of Plant Cell Biotechnology , ITQB - Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa ITQB/IBET - Apt 127 , Oeiras , Portugal .
authors.forename: Manuel Pedro
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Salema Fevereiro
authors.affiliation: i CRAG - Centre de Recerca en AgriGenòmica, Campus UAB - Edifici CRAG, Bellaterra - Cerdanyola del Vallès , Barcelona , Spain .
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marfà Riera
authors.affiliation: j Umeå Plant Science Center, Umeå University , UMEÅ , Sweden .
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jansson
authors.affiliation: k Department of Biosciences , Biophysics Institute of the National Research Council (CNR), Università di Milano , Milano , Italy .
authors.forename: Piero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Morandini
authors.affiliation: l Faculty of Agronomy , Agricultural University of Plovdiv , Plovdiv , Bulgaria .
authors.forename: Bojin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bojinov
authors.affiliation: m Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences , Sabanci University , Istanbul , Turkey .
authors.forename: Selim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cetiner
authors.affiliation: n VIB , Ghent , Belgium .
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Custers
authors.affiliation: o InnoPlantae.V., OT Gatersleben , Stadt Seeland , Germany .
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schrader
authors.affiliation: p Institut für Pflanzengenetik, Leibniz Universität Hannover , Hannover , Germany .
authors.forename: Hans-Joerg
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
authors.affiliation: q Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale - CNRS , CEA, INRA, Université Grenoble-Alpes , Grenoble , France , and.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martin-Laffon
authors.affiliation: r INRA, Direction de la Valorisation, Information Scientifique et Technique , Versailles , France.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boisron
authors.affiliation: q Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale - CNRS , CEA, INRA, Université Grenoble-Alpes , Grenoble , France , and.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuntz
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D005060:Europe; D000067565:Farmers; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research; D013312:Stress, Physiological
keywords: Automated literature analysis; biotic stress; breeding; cisgenesis; marker-assisted selection; oligonucleotide directed mutagenesis; patent; text mining; transgenesis