5. An operational, practical and dynamic generic gene flow modelling platform LandFlow-Gene is available for research purposes
A generic gene flow platform has been designed and validated for research purposes. LandFlow-Gene allows users to evaluate the effects of landscapes, climate, cropping systems, agricultural practices on gene flow and adventitious presence of GM material in non-GM production. LandFlow-Gene is operational for maize and oilseed rape through the use of two previously existing models: MAPOD® (Maize) and GeneSys (Oilseed Rape). These models have been further validated within SIGMEA and have benefited from the largest available data sets collated in Europe in an improved capacity to assess and predict levels of gene flow between crops.
Interfaces with GIS-data sets and the Landscape Generator LandSFACTS are available (figure 2).
LandFlow-Gene thus provides tools to run spatial and temporal simulations of pollen and seed dispersal for rapeseed and maize crops. Given an agricultural landscape, a climate, cropping systems and crop management practices, LandFlow-Gene predicts the adventitious presence of GM in non-GM fields under various scenarios of GM adoption. Figure 3 presents an output of LandFlow-Gene for maize.
LandFlow-gene was used to analyze the regional case studies of SIGMEA and to support the cost analysis.
Figure 2. General Structure of LandFlow-Gene. Landflow-gene uses spatial information on landscape patterns and crop allocation as well as information on crop management, climate and varieties to estimate the proportion of GM material in non-GM crop production. Outputs can be obtained at the field level (average mean of adventitious presence) or for small units (intra-field adventitious presence).
The following software was developed by SIGMEA[1]:
· Landflow-gene: complete generic platform software for rapeseed and maize.
· Landflow-gene-GeneSys: generic platform for rapeseed;
· Landflow-gene-MAPOD: generic platform for maize;
· Landflow-gene-Viewer: viewer for Landflow-gene outputs;
· Shpconv: converter of shapefile (file coming from GIS) into matricial or vectorial format.
In summary, SIGMEA has developed a generic platform to model gene flow at the scale of agricultural landscapes – LandFlow-Gene. For any agricultural plot described using a geographical information system, this platform can test different scenarios of GM introduction, take account of the effects of practices and the climate, and deliver a diagnosis as to the gene flow. The current version is now operational for maize and rapeseed, and could easily be extended to include other species. In addition, the platform could be adapted to take account of other biological flows, such as spore ispersal. SIGMEA thus makes it possible to answer questions such as "what will happen, in terms of gene dispersal, if a particular GM organism is introduced into a particular European region?" and "how can crops be organised so as to maintain the adventitious presence of GMOs in conventional crops within the legal thresholds?
Figure 3. Outputs of LandFlow-Gene. This landscape is simulating conditions in Alsace (France) where 70% of the arable land is maize, 10% of maize fields are GM maize. A and B are two different allocations of GM maize: in case B the GM fields are less scattered and the overall GM adventitious presence in non-GM fields is lower (0.18%) than in allocation A (0.23%).
[1]The three first software products include MAPOD® and/or GeneSys© for rapeseed. Access to MAPOD® and GeneSys for research applications is governed by a license agreement under the European agency for programme protection (http://app.legalis.net/) granted to INRA in 2003 and renewed in 2005 (GeneSys) and in 2006 (MAPOD® ). This helps to protect INRA in the case of liability issues. Members of the SIGMEA consortium have access to these models if they sign a licence agreement. To date, the use is restricted to research purposes.
The two last programmes were specifically produced by SIGMEA partners. Members of the consortium have free access but distribution outside of the SIGMEA consortium requires agreement from INRA to ensure traceability of uses.
