Discussion with members of the Bundestag on climate change adaptation

I was invited by the biologists' association VBIO (Verband Biologie, Biowissenschaften und Biomedizin in Deutschland) to present my research work on climate change adaptation and biotechnology with woody plants.

Members of parliament and staff from four parliamentary groups stopped by my stand-up table. The interest in forests, forest conservation in the face of climate change and related research was gratifyingly high. The interest in forest genetic issues was equally pleasing. In particular, I discussed the need for genomic and biotechnological research on trees with the visitors.

Due to a legislative proposal published by the EU Commission in the summer on the legal reassessment of new breeding technologies, including the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors, many of the visitors were well informed. There was great interest in technical details and potential applications for achieving sustainable goals and adapting crops to climate change.

Dr Tobias Brügmann and his junior research group are researching the genetic basis of drought stress tolerance in trees. Using biotechnological tools such as the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors, the expression of genes is experimentally switched on or off. The trees modified in this way are analysed in greenhouse experiments in which they are confronted with controlled drought stress. The reactions of modified and unmodified trees can be used to clarify the involvement of individual genes, which can then be specifically taken into account in the breeding process.