JPPC

IBG-2: Plant Sciences

Jülich Plant Phenotyping Centre JPPC -
Key technologies for breeding and functional genome research

Phenotyping - the bottleneck

Phenotyping means the quantitative analysis of plant structures and functions. After plant biology being dominated by molecular biology and genome research for decades, there is an increasing international acceptance for quantitative analyses of plant structure and function which play a key role in plant biology. Quantitative knowledge of structure and function enables the transfer of basic research findings to practical agriculture and ecological research. Phenotyping currently is the prime bottleneck to gain knowledge in functional genome research.

Phenotyping: development and application

The Jülich Plant Phenotyping Centre (JPPC) has a unique infrastructure especially for non-invasive methods in quantifying plant properties. JPPC has competence in the development of novel measuring methods and long-term experience in applied plant phenotyping. Therefore it takes an internationally leading role in characterising crop and model plants in the context of basic research and ecology alike.

In the national competence clusters in agronomic research initiated by BMBF (German ministry for Research), IBG-2: Plant Sciences is a major partner in the synergistic competence network Crop.SENSe.net. This network relates to the conceptual preparatory work of JPPC.

MRI-PET-Centre for plant research

JPPC installed in 2009 the first MRI-PET centre for plants word-wide. This facility is based on the unique infrastructure of the centre for imaging NMR (eco-NMR) and IBG-2's long-term expertise in the analysis of carbon transport in plants via short-lived isotopes. PLANTIS, the positron-emission tomography system for plants developed in Jülich is another feature integrated in the MRI-PET centre.

JPPC has developed a concept for a German plant phenotyping network (Deutsches Pflanzen Phänotypisierungs Netzwerk, DPPN) in close cooperation with federal research institutes and universities, which is supported by industry and breeders. DPPN is a cornerstone of the future federal plant science strategy.

International Initiative

JPPC coordinates the International Plant Phenotyping Initiative (IPPI), in which relevant phenotyping institutions world-wide intend to organise their networking activities. To date, Germany and Europe together with Australia have a strong lead position in plant phenotyping research.