This project aims to build on a previous one-year study undertaken by Alzeim in collaboration with IGER, where the feasibility of Narcissus cultivation was considered under selected environmental regimes and at different harvest dates (Morris et al 05). At that time, the economic returns were forecast to be only moderate, since pharmaceuticals containing galanthamine were protected by patents and API levels were quite low allied to high extraction and transport costs. Formulations containing the API are now generic and the research detailed in this proposal will build on sequential harvesting of different Narcissus tissues, containing significantly higher galanthamine levels, already piloted at Alzeim. The findings and research that will be addressed within this project will seek to further drive down costs by applying the latest biorefinery principles, coupled to entirely novel harvest and extraction regimes, which are then allied to developments in agronomy, choice of plant genetic resources and savings through reduced transport of feedstocks. Sales of the biorefinery 'side-streams' should result in spin-off benefits to the local economy through supply of products to support the tourism industry (perfume, paper, wax). Although focused on the objective of maximising the alkaloid content of daffodils, the research will also provide information that can be directly utilised by flower growers and indirectly by other producers seeking to use plants as sources of secondary metabolites. Specifically, the research will demonstrate the response required from growers to climate change. The innovative qualitative models produced by the research should capture all pre-existing knowledge and provide coherent tests of the results of the various trials. In addition, they should provide the foundation for models for analogous systems. The qualitative models should enable prospective growers to determine the expected returns on their investments.

Agriculture is facing the crucial challenge of adapting crop productivity to changes in the climate. More variable weather patterns require the development of crops that are able to perform more robustly under a wider range of environmental conditions. At the same time, climate change also provides new opportunities for increasing the length of the UK vegetable growing season and increasing food security by reducing imports of fresh produce during the winter, but this requires breeding new varieties that are able to produce robustly at different times of year. The BRAVO consortium aims to meet these challenges through close interactions between academia and industry. To achieve this goal, we have brought together world-leading experts in both Arabidopsis and Brassica plant reproduction from research institutes and universities within the UK. As the result of a series of meetings between consortium members and stakeholders from the oilseed rape and vegetable Brassica industries, optimisation of flowering and coordination of developmental transitions in the production of high-quality seeds were identified as important common targets. These transitions that occur during plant reproduction such as to flowering, fertilisation, inflorescence growth, seed production, dispersal, and subsequent seed performance are now known to be managed by environmentally responsive gene networks built on a foundation of common components first described for their ability to control flowering time. The goal of BRAVO is to provide a mechanistic understanding of the role of flowering time gene networks in the control of Brassica reproductive developmental transitions from vegetative growth through to seed production and seed vigour. Because these networks control environmental responsiveness, this knowledge can be exploited to increase robustness in the performance of oilseed and vegetable Brassicas. A key challenge is how to optimise individual traits when the same flowering time gene network has been optimised by evolution over millions of years for multiple functions, each of which is important for crop performance. In this proposal, we will combine genomics and phenomics technologies with approaches in developmental genetics and mathematical modelling to link genotype to phenotype for master regulators of key transitions during Brassica reproductive development. Through exploitation of available genetic resources, we will reveal the architecture of flowering time gene networks in Brassicas and how they have been modified in the past by plant breeders to cause trait variation, life history variation and climate adaptation. This will allow us to develop a predictive framework for designing strategies to vary specific crop characteristics without harming others, and to generate and test novel genetic variation with potential uses in future trait enhancement. In parallel we will establish and exploit resources such as a gene expression atlas and targeted gene disruption which will allow the Brassica research and breeding communities to expand knowledge on important biological processes and use the outputs form BRAVO collectively to improve Brassica crop performance. Long-term improved and sustainable Brassica crop performance can only be achieved through fundamental understanding of biological processes. The composition of the BRAVO consortium allows the combination of excellence in Brassica research with knowledge transfer from the closely related Arabidopsis model species. The project builds on and expands academia-industry interactions through industrial membership on the project's Supervisory Board, industry engagement and practical involvement in case studies, frequent consortium meetings and annual stakeholder events. We believe this project provides a unique opportunity to align industry priorities with excellent fundamental research programmes in order to help secure the future yield of Brassica crops in the UK and worldwide.

Bio-lubricants have both environmental and technical advantages over their counterparts derived from mineral oils. In addition to being renewable, they are biodegradable, have lower volatile emissions and low environmental toxicity. They provide superior anti-wear protection and exhibit reduced combustibility. In addition, bio-lubricants have lower coefficients of friction, which results in reduced energy costs for equipment in which bio-lubricants as used. Although vegetable oils are used in blending some less stressed lubricants, their thermal stability is inadequate for the majority of applications as a consequence of the presence of excessive polyunsaturation of their constituent fatty acids. In view of the poor stability of conventional refined rapeseed oil, lubricant blenders currently favour the use of synthetic esters with a high renewables content of the production of the more stressed lubricant types; this more expensive base oil currently inhibits uptake of bio-lubricants by end users. Rapeseed oil has many physical and chemical properties that are advantageous for base oil for the lubricants industry. However, the total content of polyunsaturated fatty acids remains too high and the resulting instability is the principal barrier to its widespread use. The target set by the industry is reduction to less than 5% total PUFAs, whilst retaining the other desirable physical and chemical properties of rapeseed oil. To be economically competitive, some yield penalty in the crop and increased processing costs can be tolerated, as its principal competitor in the market place, low PUFA sunflower oil, is presently priced at up to $120/tonne more on the commodity markets. Nevertheless, the approaches we propose should result in little, if any, yield loss from fully developed varieties. The purpose of the project is to underpin the development of oilseed rape varieties for the production of oil for use in the lubricants industry. A key knowledge gap is an understanding of how to substantially reduce the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in rapeseed oil without reducing the oil yield of the crop. We will address this knowledge gap and enable establishment of a closed supply chain. This involves: (a) The genetic improvement of oilseed rape by mutagenesis of specific genes in order to produce, from a high-yielding winter crop, oil very low in polyunsaturated fatty acids. (b) Assessment of the physical properties of the oil produced in order to validate its utility. (c) Provision of characterised oilseed rape lines to the breeding industry for the development of cultivars. (d) Catalysing assembly of a supply chain. The strategy is non-GM, so we anticipate no barriers to the widespread utilization of the resultant varieties in the UK.

Bio-lubricants have both environmental and technical advantages over their counterparts derived from mineral oils. In addition to being renewable, they are biodegradable, have lower volatile emissions and low environmental toxicity. They provide superior anti-wear protection and exhibit reduced combustibility. In addition, bio-lubricants have lower coefficients of friction, which results in reduced energy costs for equipment in which bio-lubricants as used. Although vegetable oils are used in blending some less stressed lubricants, their thermal stability is inadequate for the majority of applications as a consequence of the presence of excessive polyunsaturation of their constituent fatty acids. In view of the poor stability of conventional refined rapeseed oil, lubricant blenders currently favour the use of synthetic esters with a high renewables content of the production of the more stressed lubricant types; this more expensive base oil currently inhibits uptake of bio-lubricants by end users. Rapeseed oil has many physical and chemical properties that are advantageous for base oil for the lubricants industry. However, the total content of polyunsaturated fatty acids remains too high and the resulting instability is the principal barrier to its widespread use. The target set by the industry is reduction to less than 5% total PUFAs, whilst retaining the other desirable physical and chemical properties of rapeseed oil. To be economically competitive, some yield penalty in the crop and increased processing costs can be tolerated, as its principal competitor in the market place, low PUFA sunflower oil, is presently priced at up to $120/tonne more on the commodity markets. Nevertheless, the approaches we propose should result in little, if any, yield loss from fully developed varieties. The purpose of the project is to underpin the development of oilseed rape varieties for the production of oil for use in the lubricants industry. A key knowledge gap is an understanding of how to substantially reduce the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in rapeseed oil without reducing the oil yield of the crop. We will address this knowledge gap and enable establishment of a closed supply chain. This involves: (a) The genetic improvement of oilseed rape by mutagenesis of specific genes in order to produce, from a high-yielding winter crop, oil very low in polyunsaturated fatty acids. (b) Assessment of the physical properties of the oil produced in order to validate its utility. (c) Provision of characterised oilseed rape lines to the breeding industry for the development of cultivars. (d) Catalysing assembly of a supply chain. The strategy is non-GM, so we anticipate no barriers to the widespread utilization of the resultant varieties in the UK.

Antibiotics are used extensively to fight bacterial infections and have saved millions of lives. However, the bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics and some antibiotics have stopped working. We refer to this as antimicrobial resistance - AMR. We don't just use antibiotics for people; similar amounts are given to farm animals. More than 900 million farm animals are reared every year in the UK and antibiotic treatments are vital for their welfare, for farms as businesses, and for us to enjoy affordable food. However, farms may be contributing to the development of AMR. The aim of this project is to improve our understanding of how farm practice, especially the way in which manure is handled, could lead to AMR in animal and human pathogens. This understanding will help farmers and vets find new ways to reduce AMR, without harming their animals or their businesses. For research purposes, Nottingham University maintains a typical high performance dairy farm - its 200 cows produce a lot of milk and a lot of manure. The waste is stored in a 3 million litre slurry tank, any excess goes into a 7 million litre lagoon. This slurry is applied to fields as organic fertilizer. Cow manure contains many harmless bacteria but some, e.g. E. coli O157, can cause severe infection in people. When cows get sick they are treated with antibiotics. Udder infections are treated by injection of antibiotics into the udder. Since this milk contains antibiotics, it cannot be sold but is discarded into the slurry. Foot infections are treated with an antibacterial footbath, which is also emptied into the slurry tank. As a result, slurry tanks contain a mixture of bacteria, antibiotics and other antimicrobials that are stored for many months. The bacteria that survive in the presence of antibiotics are more likely to have antibiotic resistance. This resistance is encoded in their genes so passed to the next generation. Worse still, the genes can be passed on to other bacteria in the slurry. Before we wrote this proposal, we investigated our own farm's slurry tank to see if this might be happening. We tested 160 E. coli strains from the slurry; most carried antibiotic resistance. We also found antibiotics in the tank - including some that bacteria were resistant to. Our mathematical modellers showed that reducing spread of resistance genes in the tank might be more effective in preventing resistance than cutting the use of antibiotics. Conversations with the farm vets revealed that they knew about AMR and had changed some of their antibiotic prescriptions. But these analyses leave us with more questions than answers. In this project, we want to find out if current farming methods are contributing to the development of harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria in slurry, bacteria that may then be encountered by humans and animals. To do this, we need to integrate scientific and cultural approaches: - What bacteria are in the slurry? How many are harmful? What resistance genes do they carry? How do these genes spread? - How long do antibiotics remain in the tank? Do they degrade? - What happens to the bacteria and antibiotics after they are spread on fields? - How do farmers, vets and scientists interpret evidence about AMR? What are their hidden assumptions? Can we improve collaborative decision making on AMR risk management? - Can we reduce resistance by avoiding mixing together bacteria and antimicrobials in slurry? - Can we predict the risk of emergence of and exposure to resistant pathogens? Can we predict which interventions are likely to be most effective to reduce AMR, taking into account both human and scientific factors? Through this research, we will learn what can realistically be done to reduce this risk; not just on this farm, but UK wide. We will work with farmers, vets and policy makers to ensure that our results will make a difference to reducing the risk of harmful AMR bacteria arising in agriculture.