Project description
A heat-sensitive enzyme to ensure food security
CO2 fixation in photosynthesis is mainly constrained by an enzyme, Rubisco, which has several inefficiencies, including inhibition of its active sites by sugar-phosphate derivatives. This means reduced crop productivity and resource-use efficiency. At a time when climate change is already affecting crop productivity by decreasing the CO2 fixation in photosynthesis, concerns for global food security have been growing. The EU-funded ScreenRca project will use the enzyme rubisco activase (Rca), a crucial heat-sensitive enzyme determining the efficiency of CO2 fixation by Rubisco, as a promising target to develop productive and resource use efficient crops for the future warm climate. Specifically, it will identify and characterise fast Rubisco activating and heat-stable Rcas in warm-adapted grasses.
Objective
The future warm climate is predicted to reduce crop productivity by decreasing the CO2 fixation in photosynthesis, which is a concern for global food security. CO2 fixation in photosynthesis is mainly constrained by an enzyme, Rubisco. Rubisco has several inefficiencies, including inhibition of its active sites by sugar-phosphate derivatives. Rubisco inhabitation reduces photosynthetic CO2 fixation and, hence, crop productivity and resource-use efficiency. The removal of such inhibitors to restore rubisco activity needs interaction with enzyme rubisco activase (Rca). Rca is a crucial heat-sensitive enzyme determining the efficiency of CO2 fixation by Rubisco and, hence, crop productivity and resource-use efficiency. Consequently, Rca is a promising target to develop productive and resource-use efficient crops for the future warm climate. The limited evidence suggests that exploitable diversity in the speed of rubisco activation and heat stability of Rca exists in nature. However, this diversity is largely unexplored, thus hindering our efforts to use Rca in crop improvement. To fill this gap, ScreenRca will identify and characterize fast Rubisco activating and heat-stable Rca in warm adapted C4 grasses - grasses with C4 type of photosynthesis. Specifically, ScreenRca will use diverse accessions of C4 model grass Setaria viridis and C4 model crop Sorghum bicolor adapted to a range of temperature gradients. These C4 accessions will be exposed to short- and long-term warm environments to identify novel, fast Rubisco activating and heat-stable Rcas using an intradisciplinary approach melding physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and synthetic biology. Further, these novel Rcas will be characterized to uncover underlying mechanisms responsible for the efficiency in rubisco activation and heat-stability. These novel Rcas will have utility to develop climate-resilient, productive, and resource-use efficient crops.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
- natural sciences biological sciences botany
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01
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40225 Dusseldorf
Germany
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