[en] We have reached three quarters of the biennium 2012-2013. The negative effects of climate variability and change on biodiversity are becoming increasingly evident and feature more and more in our activities. The deleterious effects of climate variability and change cause devastating yield losses and threaten global food security and commodity prices. There is an urgency to develop and to produce new resilient mutant lines, to get these to farmers and to grow them on a large scale as fast as possible. We at the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section and Laboratory are adjusting our activities accordingly. We have initiated new activities for inducing and screening mutations more quickly, safely and efficiently. In this newsletter, you will find interesting news on alternatives to gamma irradiation using X rays, seed mass phenotyping using an X ray platform that we are developing and the first tests of our next generation sequencing (NGS) platform. A milestone has been reached in meeting the challenge of wheat black stem rust disease (race Ug99). In the TC section of this newsletter, you find more information on an unfolding success story involving 18 countries and four international organisations. Inducing mutations significantly speeds up the process of plant breeding and is more cost effective and environmentally friendly than using fungicides to prevent stem rust caused by race Ug99. While spontaneous mutations occurring in nature happen over a long period of time, mutation induction is used to achieve the same results much more quickly and efficiently, providing sustainable solutions to crop production constraints and responding to food security threats. In fact, this success story is a good example of the pipeline from the laboratory to the farm that we implement. This pipeline is demand driven, results based and outcome oriented: technology packages are adapted and/or developed in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory; services are provided (mutation induction) and capacity built; technology packages are further tested and debugged in research networks (CRPs); and then the technology is transferred to our counterparts in Member States through Technical Cooperation projects. Two CRPs will close in 2013. You will find more information about CRP D2.40.12, ''Enhancing the Efficiency of Induced Mutagenesis through an Integrated Biotechnology Pipeline'', in this issue. This CRP proposed to address efficiency of mutation induction through the assembly, adaptation and interlacing of novel cellular and molecular biology techniques to achieve a seamless dove- tailing of validated processes into a modular pipeline: cellular and molecular biology techniques addressing the bottlenecks imposed by the need to generate large mutant populations rapidly in appropriate genetic backgrounds (homozygous for the mutation events, devoid of chimeras and in contemporary breeding materials). By scrutinizing target genes for desired changes, the need for field trials of large populations will be precluded. Milestones include the development of rapid techniques for dissolution of chimeras in vegetatively propagated banana; establishment of barley TILLING for targeting genes controlling drought; microspore mutagenesis for instant production of homozygous true breeding mutant lines; reduced representation next-generation sequencing approaches to screen mutant rice populations; and development and validation of low cost methods for mutant screening. Major milestones have been reached in CRP D2.40.23, ''Isolation and Characterization of Genes Involved in Mutagenesis of Crop Plants''. Genes encoding core proteins of the repair pathway in rice have been cloned and are being characterized. Whole genome scanning in soybean is under way for naturally mutated and selected genes. A chloroplast mutator gene and mutations caused by it have been identified in barley, and three putative DNA repair genes in pea are currently under study. Mutant populations of rice are being screened for reduced sensitivity to radiation. The assembly and publication of the complete sequence of the wild soybean (Glycine soja) genome is a major achievement that will aid genotypic selection (mutant variation) for crop improvement in the future. A barley EST database was established with extensive sequence alignments to Arabidopsis sequences, with hyperlinks to original data sources and to the MVGS database. Plant mutation breeding continues to be relevant throughout the world. This is evident by the increasing number of crop species that are subject to mutagenesis (over 200) and the increasing numbers of mutant varieties (over 3000). While mutation techniques have become routine and standard in the plant breeding programmes in many countries, capacity in others is often lagging, and in some mutation breeding has yet to be established. We are therefore proud to report the initiation of national mutation breeding programmes in Oman, Palestine and Qatar. A recent news item underlines the increasing importance of mutation breeding as a workable alternative to GMO: The world's largest producer of seeds, Monsanto, has apparently given up on attempts to spread its genetically modified (GM) plant varieties in Europe. A German media report stated that the firm would end all lobbying for approval and has dropped any plans to have farmers grow its GM plant varieties in Europe. All over the world, protesters have been rallying against GM food - in Germany, the protest movement against GM plants has been particularly strong for years. The German Agriculture Ministry said it had been highly critical of gene modification technologies - ''The promises of GM industry have not come true for European agriculture, nor have they for the agriculture in developing and emerging economies'', the Ministry said in a statement