Catherine Feuillet
{{short description|French geneticist}}
{{Update|date=November 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Catherine Feuillet
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|birth_name = Catherine Feuillet
|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1965|7}}
|birth_place = Orléans, France
|nationality = French
|alma_mater = Federal Institute for Agroecology in Zurich
|occupation = Geneticist and Molecular Biologist
|known_for = Sequencing chromosome 3B on the wheat genome
|awards = Prix Foulon, Trophée de la Femme, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Jean Dufrenoy Prize from the Académie d'Agriculture of France
}}
Catherine Feuillet ({{IPA|fr|katʁin fœjɛ|-|Fr-Catherine Feuillet.ogg}}; born July 1965) is a French geneticist who is currently the Chief Scientific Officer of [https://inari.com Inari Agriculture], a Cambridge MA based biotechnology company. Feuillet earned a PhD in plant molecular biology on the isolation and characterization of genes involved in wood formation in eucalyptus trees. She started to work on the genetics of disease resistance in wheat in 1994 during her post-doctoral studies at the [https://www.ias.ethz.ch/ Swiss Federal Institute for Agroecology]. She then moved as a junior group leader to the University of Zurich where she investigated the molecular basis of fungal disease resistance in wheat and in barley and cloned the first leaf rust resistance gene from wheat. In 2004 she was hired as a research director at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in France to lead European and international projects on wheat genomics.
In 2008, she and her team successfully published the first mapping of the largest wheat chromosome, 3B and in 2014, they were also the first to publish the full sequence of this chromosome as well as a first reference sequence of the entire wheat genome together with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium ([https://www.wheatgenome.org/ IWGSC]).
Feuillet was part of the founding members and served as a co-chair of the IWSGC from 2005-2018. In 2013, she joined Bayer Crop Science the Head of Trait Research to lead the discovery and validation of genes to improve soybean, cotton, canola, and wheat yield and tolerance to biotic stresses.{{cite web|title=The Wheat Makers - Research Magazine|url=http://www.research.bayer.com/en/wheat-makers.aspx|access-date=15 March 2016|website=The Bayer Scientific Magazine|publisher=Bayer CropScience|quote=}} She was honored as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and has been awarded the Prix Foulon from the French Academy of Science, the science award of the Femmes en or, and the Jean Dufrenoy Prize from the Académie d'Agriculture of France. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.{{cite news|date=17 October 2014|title=Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium|publisher=Borlaug Dialogue|location=Des Moines, Iowa|url=https://2014borlaugdialoguea.sched.org/speaker/catherine_feuillet.1srnwy4z#.VjwTzOK2oVI|accessdate=6 November 2015}}
Education and early life
Catherine Feuillet was born in Orléans,{{cite web|url=http://www.breedwheat.fr/files/2011.10.14%20Semeur%20Hebdo%20Catherine%20Feuillet.pdf|title=Catherine Feuillet, une chercheuse en or... vert|author=Jean-Philippe Monjot|language=French|date=14 October 2011|publisher=Le Semeur Hebdo|page=3|accessdate=7 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208111352/http://www.breedwheat.fr/files/2011.10.14%20Semeur%20Hebdo%20Catherine%20Feuillet.pdf|archive-date=8 December 2015|url-status=dead}} approximately 130 km (80 miles) south of Paris, and conducted her university studies in Toulouse in plant molecular biology.{{cite web|last=|first=|date=23 December 2011|title=INRA Scientist Catherine Feuillet named AAAS Fellow|url=http://presse.inra.fr/en/Resources/Press-releases/Feuillet-AAAS-Fellow-2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072024/http://presse.inra.fr/en/Resources/Press-releases/Feuillet-AAAS-Fellow-2011|archive-date=4 March 2016|accessdate=6 November 2015|website=|publisher=Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique|location=Clermont-Ferrand, France}} In 1993, she earned her doctorate at the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, on genes involved in lignification in Eucalyptus. Between 1994 and 1997, she completed post-doctoral studies at the Federal Institute for Agroecology in Zürich, developing molecular markers to support breeding for fungal disease resistance in wheat.{{cite web|url =https://gmoanswers.com/experts/catherine-feuillet|title =Catherine Feuillet: GMO Answers|last =Feuillet| first =Catherine| date =24 April 2014|website =GMO Answers|publisher =Council for Biotechnology Information| access-date =15 March 2016}} During the course of her postdoc she started to work on wheat genomics and continued to develop disease resistance gene cloning and comparative genomics projects in wheat and barely as junior group leader and assistant professor at the Institute of Plant Biology at the University of Zurich.{{cite web|title=Catherine Feuillet|url=http://pae.criba.edu.ar/paginas/shortbio2010%20feuillet.doc|publisher=Proyecto de Área Estratégica|accessdate=6 November 2015|location=Argentina|date=2011}}
{{Quote box|bgcolor=#FFDEAD|align=right|width=35%|
"On me dit que je fais peur aux gens en parlant de sélection de gènes... Mais je ne fais que ce que font les fermiers depuis dix mille ans! Sauf qu’ils le faisaient sans le savoir, par croisements. Maintenant, nous, on veut savoir."
"They tell me I scare people by talking about gene selection .... But I only do what farmers have been doing for ten thousand years. Except that they did it, without knowing it, by cross-breeding. Now we want to know [what we are doing]."
{{right| Catherine Feuillet, quoted in 2011}}
}}
Past research and awards
In 2004, she joined the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (National Institute of Agricultural Research) (INRA) in Clermont-Ferrand, France, as the research director and deputy director of the [https://www6.clermont.inrae.fr/umr1095_eng/ Genetics, Diversity and Ecophysiology of Cereals] joint Research Unit. In 2005, she co-founded the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), an international effort to produce a high quality reference sequence of the bread wheat genome, a scientific challenge at that time given the size wheat genome is 5 times bigger than the human genome.{{cite news|last1=Huet|first1=Sylvestre|title=Il faut ouvrir la boîte noire du génome des blés|url=http://www.liberation.fr/sciences/2013/03/28/il-faut-ouvrir-la-boite-noire-du-genome-des-bles_892066|accessdate=6 November 2015|publisher=Liberation|date=28 March 2013|location=France|language=French}} In 2005 she also co-created and was appointed as chair of the European Triticeae Genomics Initiative (ETGI) which was aimed at coordinating research in wheat, barley and rye in Europe and developing collaborative projects.{{cite web|title=Catherine Feuillet distinguée par l'Académie des sciences|url=http://jobs.inra.fr/A-la-une/Prix-et-distinctions/Catherine-Feuillet-distinguee-par-l-Academie-des-sciences|publisher=Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique|accessdate=6 November 2015|location=Clermont-Ferrand, France|language=French|date=24 November 2009}} Between 2008 and 2012 she led a European project entitled "TriticeaeGenome: Genomics for Triticeae improvement" comprising 17 public and private partners in nine countries as part of the FP7 framework.{{cite web|date=August 2009|title=The International Triticeae Mapping Initiative – ITMI|url=http://cereales-vallee.org/data/editor/file/C%C3%A9r%C3%A9ales%20Productions%20agricoles%20durables/fiche_ITMI.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208190540/http://cereales-vallee.org/data/editor/file/C%C3%A9r%C3%A9ales%20Productions%20agricoles%20durables/fiche_ITMI.pdf|archive-date=8 December 2015|accessdate=6 November 2015|publisher=Céréales Vallée|location=Saint-Beauzire, France|language=French|df=dmy-all}} In 2008, Feuillet's team published in the journal, Science, the first mapping results of the wheat chromosome 3B, which is the largest{{cite news|title=Genetic Researchers Unveil Draft Sequence of Wheat Genome|url=http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/science-draft-sequence-wheat-genome-02069.html|accessdate=6 November 2015|publisher=Sci-News|date=18 July 2014|location=Orange County, California}} of the 21 chromosomes of wheat.{{cite news|last1=Gonzalez|first1=Sarah|title=Wanted: $13 million to unlock the wheat genome|url=http://www.agri-pulse.com/Wanted-13-million-to-unlock-the-wheat-genome-03112015.asp|accessdate=6 November 2015|publisher=Agri-Pulse Communications|location=Camdenton, Missouri|date=11 March 2015}} That same year she joined International Triticeae Mapping Initiative (ITMI) to assist with planning and coordination of research projects. In 2009 she initiated and led Breedwheat, a large public-private partnership (27 partners) effort in France to strengthen the competitiveness of the French wheat breeding sector and address the societal demand for sustainability, quality and safety in agricultural production. On 24 November 2009 Feuillet received the Prix Foulon from the French Academy of Sciences for her work in deciphering the genome.{{cite news|title=Catherine Feuillet, directrice de recherche à l'Inra|url=http://www.clermont-ferrand.fr/Catherine-Feuillet-directrice-de.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208130054/http://www.clermont-ferrand.fr/Catherine-Feuillet-directrice-de.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 December 2015|accessdate=6 November 2015|publisher=TV8|date=24 November 2009|location=Clermont-Ferrand, France|language=French}} That same year, she was also awarded the gold Trophée de la Femme for her research and then on 10 September 2010, received the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from the INRA.{{cite web|title=Catherine Feuillet reçoit la Légion d'honneur|url=http://www6.ara.inra.fr/umr1095/Actualites/Legion-d-honneur-Catherine-Feuillet|publisher=Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique|accessdate=6 November 2015|location=Clermont-Ferrand, France|language=French|date=13 September 2010}}
In 2011 she joined the Wheat Initiative, created by the G20 countries to improve global wheat production{{Cite news|date=2013-05-17|title=Comment faire pousser 60 % de blé en plus en 2050 ?|language=fr|work=Le Monde.fr|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/17/comment-faire-pousser-60-de-ble-en-plus-en-2050_3289248_3244.html|access-date=2020-12-09}} and that same year was awarded a Fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Feuillet received the Jean Dufrenoy Prize from the Académie d'Agriculture of France in 2012.{{Cite web|title=Prix Jean DUFRENOY {{!}} Académie d'Agriculture de France|url=https://www.academie-agriculture.fr/prix-medailles/prix-jean-dufrenoy|access-date=2020-12-09|website=www.academie-agriculture.fr}}
After completing the sequence chromosome 3B, the largest wheat chromosome, with her team at INRA in partnership with the Genoscrop and the CNRGV, a foundational achievement that was published in Science magazine,{{cite web|last=Pennisi|first=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth Pennisi|date=2 October 2008|title=A Giant Leap for Wheat Genome|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/giant-leap-wheat-genome|access-date=14 March 2016|website=Science|publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science|quote=}} Feuillet joined Bayer CropScience as the head of the Trait Research Department.
Wheat genome sequencing
File:Weizenähre Detailansicht.JPG
In 2004 when she joined INRA as a research director, Feuillet began her work on sequencing the bread wheat genome (16Gb, 21 chromosomes), with the aim of decrypting the largest wheat chromosome, 3B, which is 1Gb in size - the size of the entire soybean genome and more than twice as large as the entire rice genome. The initial strategy of the IWGSC was to produce physical maps of each individual chromosome and sequence them to get to a reference genome sequence. At that time whole genome sequencing approaches did not yield any high quality sequence assemblies due to the extremely high amount of repetitive sequences in the wheat genome. Feuillet and her team were the first to establish a physical map of chromosome 3B which was published the journal Science in 2008. This paved the way for other teams to complete physical maps of the other 20 chromosomes. In2014, the reference sequence of chromosome 3B was published by Feuillet and her team concomitantly with the publications of a draft sequence of each individual chromosome by the IWGSC, in the journal Science.{{Cite journal|last=Consortium (IWGSC)|first=The International Wheat Genome Sequencing|date=2014-07-18|title=A chromosome-based draft sequence of the hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) genome|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1251788|journal=Science|language=en|volume=345|issue=6194|doi=10.1126/science.1251788|issn=0036-8075|pmid=25035500|s2cid=206555738}} The reference sequence of chromosome 3B revealed striking patterns of the more than 8,000 genes distribution along the chromosome and a better understanding of the organization, function and evolution of large and polyploid genomes such as wheat. The draft sequence of the 21 chromosomes enabled for the first time the annotation of 124,201 genes and comparative evolutionary analyses with diploid and tetraploid wheat relatives. These sequences anchored to many molecular markers on genetic maps, provided a springboard for faster gene isolation, rapid genetic marker development, and precise breeding through genome editing to accelerate wheat breeding.{{Cite journal|last1=Paux|first1=E.|last2=Sourdille|first2=P.|last3=Salse|first3=J.|last4=Saintenac|first4=C.|last5=Choulet|first5=F.|last6=Leroy|first6=P.|last7=Korol|first7=A.|last8=Michalak|first8=M.|last9=Kianian|first9=S.|last10=Spielmeyer|first10=W.|last11=Lagudah|first11=E.|date=2008-10-03|title=A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1161847|journal=Science|volume=322|issue=5898|pages=101–104|doi=10.1126/science.1161847|pmid=18832645|bibcode=2008Sci...322..101P |s2cid=27686615|issn=0036-8075}}
Following a breakthrough by NRGene in the capacity to perform assembly of highly repetitive sequences in 2016, the IWGSC combined the physical map-based sequencing and whole genome sequencing approaches to produce a first version of a high quality reference sequence of the bread wheat genome.{{cite web|last=|first=|date=6 January 2016|title=Wheat Genome Sequencing Gets Major Boost|url=http://www.wheatgenome.org/News/Press-releases/Wheat-Genome-Sequencing-Gets-Major-Boost|access-date=15 March 2016|website=|publisher=International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium|quote=}} This was published in 2018 alongside other publications exemplifying the use of such a high quality sequence in Science.{{Cite journal|last1=Consortium (IWGSC)|first1=The International Wheat Genome Sequencing|last2=Appels|first2=Rudi|last3=Eversole|first3=Kellye|last4=Stein|first4=Nils|last5=Feuillet|first5=Catherine|last6=Keller|first6=Beat|last7=Rogers|first7=Jane|last8=Pozniak|first8=Curtis J.|last9=Choulet|first9=Frédéric|last10=Distelfeld|first10=Assaf|last11=Poland|first11=Jesse|date=2018-08-17|title=Shifting the limits in wheat research and breeding using a fully annotated reference genome|journal=Science|language=en|volume=361|issue=6403|pages=eaar7191|doi=10.1126/science.aar7191|issn=0036-8075|pmid=30115783|s2cid=52016579|doi-access=free|hdl=10754/628863|hdl-access=free}} Since then, more than publications referring to the use of the IWGSC reference sequence have been published demonstrating the usefulness of such a sequence, fulfilling the vision that Feuillet and her colleagues at the IWGSC established in 2005.
Sequencing the wheat genome completely is important for producers all over the world. Wheat currently makes up more than 20% of all calories consumed in the world, and as the global population increases, so does the need for wheat. Recently, however, wheat production has been stagnating because technological advances can’t keep up with negative economic and natural factors.{{cite web | url =http://www.agprofessional.com/news/commentary-working-improve-productivity-gap-wheat-crops | title =Working To Improve the Productivity Gap in Wheat Crops | last =Feuillet | first =Catherine | date =9 December 2015 | website =Farm Journal, Inc. | access-date =14 March 2016 | quote = | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160703062447/http://www.agprofessional.com/news/commentary-working-improve-productivity-gap-wheat-crops | archive-date =3 July 2016 | url-status =dead }} The total demand for wheat is expected to increase by 70 percent by the year 2050—an increase of about 1.6 percent per year (Gonzalez). Sequencing the genome has provided an invaluable resource to scientists to accelerate wheat improvement and the capacity for wheat to cope with climate change and be produced in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner through advanced breeding and technology.
Current research
Feuillet leads the science organization at [https://www.inari.com\ Inari Agriculture] as their Chief Scientific Officer. Inari's science organization comprises about 70 employees at their research sites in Ghent, Belgium, Cambridge, Massachusetts and West Lafayette, Indiana. Feuillet and her team work on identifying the regions of the genomes to be edited, and on developing a unique genome editing tool box that enables breeding by editing on major crops such as corn, soybean, wheat and tomato{{Cite journal|last=Waltz|first=Emily|date=2019-09-24|title=With CRISPR and machine learning, startups fast-track crops to consume less, produce more|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41587-019-00027-2.epdf?no_publisher_access=1&r3_referer=nature|journal=Nature Biotechnology|language=En|volume=37|issue=11|pages=1251–1252|doi=10.1038/d41587-019-00027-2|pmid=31690871|s2cid=204117537|issn=1087-0156|doi-access=}} to bring plant breeding to anew age and solve a very complex problem; rapidly creating hundreds of new varieties that will perform optimally in their local environment while requiring minimal natural resources.{{Cite web|date=2019-10-15|title=Q&A: Catherine Feuillet, Geneticist and Molecular Biologist|url=https://www.agriculture.com/crops/wheat/qa-catherine-feuillet-geneticist-and-molecular-biologist|access-date=2020-12-09|website=Successful Farming|language=en}}
References
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Category:French molecular biologists
Category:Genetic engineering and agriculture
Category:French women botanists
Category:Women molecular biologists
Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Category:Scientists from Orléans
Category:20th-century French botanists
Category:21st-century French botanists
Category:20th-century French scientists
Category:21st-century French biologists