Project description
Identifying sustainable functions of the global grapevine microbiome
Sustainability is an important goal for Europe's agricultural industry. Viticulture covers large portions of land and represents an important source of income for local economies. Given the impacts from intensive farming, we must now work to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function while increasing the margin of benefits for growers. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions FUNVINE project has two major objectives; the first is to identify and investigate the functional microbiome of grapevine roots and leaves from across the globe. Second, is to identify the capacity of the microbiome to benefit growers and habitats. FUNVINE will show how the mechanisms of grapevine microbiomes across regions, environmental gradients and varieties answer many of the greatest challenges to productive and sustainable viticulture systems worldwide.
Objective
Vineyards are integral to supporting the ecology and economy for a sustainable society, as they cover a large portion of land worldwide, and represent an important source of income for local economies. The intensification of viticulture including the excessive use of plowing and agrochemicals has resulted in eroded and biologically impoverished vineyards with associated negative consequences for growers and the environment. Given these challenges, we must now work to restore sustainable biodiversity and ecosystem function while increasing the margin of benefits for growers. An important step in this process is to investigate the functional microbiome associated with grapevine roots and leaves because it controls key processes such as pathogenesis, symbiosis and nutrient cycling. To do so, a global collaborative research network has begun to identify the members of the grapevine microbiome (bacteria, fungi and micro-fauna); the proposed research project (FUNVINE) would complement microbial community analyses by simultaneously characterizing the microbial functional attributes of grapevines worldwide using advanced shotgun metagenomic approaches. FUNVINE will include two major research components to improve our knowledge to help achieve sustainability in vineyard management; 1) global-scale functional profiling of the grapevine microbiome, and 2) manipulative experimentation to identify the impacts of environmental change on grapevine-microbiome interactions. These research objectives will expand global knowledge of the microbial mechanisms that benefit or inhibit grapevines across environmental gradients, including under a major climate change-driven stressor -- drought. Overall, the FUNVINE project will reveal for the first time, the mechanisms of the grapevine microbiome across regions, environmental gradients, and grape varieties, thus providing answers to many of the greatest challenges to healthy, productive, and sustainable viticulture systems worldwide.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticultureviticulture
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologymycology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesethologybiological interactions
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
28006 Madrid
Spain