10 research outputs found
Paving the way towards future-proofing our crops
To meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant-derived products, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technically challenging imperative. The CropBooster-P project, a response to the H2020 call âFuture proofing our plantsâ, is developing a roadmap for plant research to improve crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing crop yield, nutritional quality, value for non-food applications and sustainability. However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and prioritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to take into account future socio-economic, technological and global developments, including numerous policy and socio-economic challenges and constraints. Based on a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developed four extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future developments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct future plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approaches that could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four future world scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options that would need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learning scenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. In addition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized potential, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources of nutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several methods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some of the scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learning scenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are heading toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meet our food, feed and non-food biomass production needs in the coming decades
ERECTA receptor-kinases play a key role in the appropriate timing of seed germination under changing salinity
Appropriate timing of seed germination is crucial for the survival and propagation of plants, and for crop yield, especially
in environments prone to salinity or drought. However, the exact mechanisms by which seeds perceive changes
in soil conditions and integrate them to trigger germination remain elusive, especially once the seeds are non-dormant.
In this study, we determined that the Arabidopsis ERECTA (ER), ERECTA-LIKE1 (ERL1), and ERECTA-LIKE2 (ERL2)
leucine-rich-repeat receptor-like kinases regulate seed germination and its sensitivity to changes in salt and osmotic
stress levels. Loss of ER alone, or in combination with ERL1 and/or ERL2, slows down the initiation of germination
and its progression to completion, or arrests it altogether under saline conditions, until better conditions return. This
function is maternally controlled via the tissues surrounding the embryo, with a primary role being played by the properties
of the seed coat and its mucilage. These relate to both seed-coat expansion and subsequent differentiation
and to salinity-dependent interactions between the mucilage, subtending seed coat layers and seed interior in the
germinating seed. Salt-hypersensitive er105, er105 erl1.2, er105 erl2.1 and triple-mutant seeds also exhibit increased
sensitivity to exogenous ABA during germination, and under salinity show an enhanced up-regulation of the germination
repressors and inducers of dormancy ABA-insensitive-3, ABA-insensitive-5, DELLA-encoding RGL2, and DelayOf-Germination-1.
These findings reveal a novel role of the ERECTA receptor-kinases in the sensing of conditions at
the seed surface and the integration of developmental, dormancy and stress signalling pathways in seeds. They also
open novel avenues for the genetic improvement of plant adaptation to changing drought and salinity patterns
Paving the way towards future-proofing our crops
To meet the increasing global demand for food, feed, fibre and other plant-derived products, a steep increase in crop productivity is a scientifically and technically challenging imperative. The CropBooster-P project, a response to the H2020 call âFuture proofing our plantsâ, is developing a roadmap for plant research to improve crops critical for the future of European agriculture by increasing crop yield, nutritional quality, value for non-food applications and sustainability. However, if we want to efficiently improve crop production in Europe and prioritize methods for crop trait improvement in the coming years, we need to take into account future socio-economic, technological and global developments, including numerous policy and socio-economic challenges and constraints. Based on a wide range of possible global trends and key uncertainties, we developed four extreme future learning scenarios that depict complementary future developments. Here, we elaborate on how the scenarios could inform and direct future plant research, and we aim to highlight the crop improvement approaches that could be the most promising or appropriate within each of these four future world scenarios. Moreover, we discuss some key plant technology options that would need to be developed further to meet the needs of multiple future learning scenarios, such as improving methods for breeding and genetic engineering. In addition, other diverse platforms of food production may offer unrealized potential, such as underutilized terrestrial and aquatic species as alternative sources of nutrition and biomass production. We demonstrate that although several methods or traits could facilitate a more efficient crop production system in some of the scenarios, others may offer great potential in all four of the future learning scenarios. Altogether, this indicates that depending on which future we are heading toward, distinct plant research fields should be given priority if we are to meet our food, feed and non-food biomass production needs in the coming decades