Prolonged drought due to climate change has a severe impact on agriculture, requiring measures to secure yield stability under water-shortage conditions. This project aims to be a BOOSTER for developing innovative and sustainable strategies to create climate resilient and drought tolerant cereals.
BOOSTER focuses on three cereal species: maize, teff, and Eragrostis nindensis, selected due to their marked differences in tolerance to drought. Maize is the most cultivated cereal in the World and drought is a leading cause of its yield loss. Teff represents the major food and nutrition security crop in Ethiopia, is relatively drought tolerant, but its yield is also affected by prolonged drought. The Southern African desiccation-tolerant grass E. nindensis survives extreme drought and is genetically closely related to teff. BOOSTER aims to improve drought tolerance in maize and teff, while simultaneously exploring the potential for transferring species-specific drought responsive features from more tolerant to more sensitive species.
BOOSTER focuses on the implementation of two synergistic strategies. The first strategy is based on the application of a novel methodology, named MNase-defined cistrome-Occupancy Analysis (MOA-seq), for the genome-wide identification of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) bound by putative transcription factors (TFs) regulating gene expression. MOA-seq, including integration with data available from genome wide association studies (GWAS), will improve the exploitation of natural genetic variation of breeding programs aimed at the development of European maize and Ethiopian teff drought tolerant genotypes (DTGs). Indeed, compared with GWAS, such strategy allows polymorphism identification at higher resolution (30 bp) and identifies the causative association between genetic variation and drought resilience because it detects genetic variants within CREs, which represent the majority of quantitative traits variation. The data achieved by the MOA-seq strategy will be subsequently validated by means of genetic strategies, including targeted genome editing. The optimized MOA-seq strategy will be transferable to other crops and quantitative traits.
The second strategy relies on the development of novel natural biostimulants as an eco-friendly and bio-based approach for improving drought resilience. These biostimulants are: i) seaweed extracts (SWEs), some of which have been shown to prime abiotic stresses tolerance in crops and ii) microbial biostimulants comprised of soil microorganisms growing in and around plant roots and termed plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) because they stimulate plant growth and influence plant responses to abiotic stresses. PGPR biostimulants will be developed by capitalizing on the theories that PGPRs conferring drought tolerance are specifically enriched in roots and rhizosphere of plant species/genotypes adapted to drought. The best performing SWEs and PGPR biostimulants will be tested on maize and teff during open field trials, also considering the environmental impact by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In addition, their mode of action will be investigated to improve the development of scientifically based formulations, which is required for their more efficient and targeted application.
The project will produce increased maize- and teff-derived biomass resources under harsh drought conditions, will lower irrigation requirement, will strengthen competitiveness of European and African agri-food industry.
Rough quantitative estimates show that, by 2030, the development of new DTGs could save €24 mn/year and €15 mn/year for maize and teff production, respectively and 1.75-4 million m3/year of water for maize irrigation. The application of one novel biostimulant could save ca. €8 mn/year and €2 mn/year for maize and teff production, respectively and 0.58-1.33 million m3/year of water for maize irrigation.
Finally, BOOSTER will provide concrete examples that, by a tailored communication/dissemination strategy and a stakeholders’ engagement plan, will improve public awareness about a sustainable use of bio-based technologies.
