Project description
Understanding plant defence memory
Plants adapt to changing environments by storing information from past stresses. Lacking a cellular immune system or brain, they develop defence memory through epigenetic regulation and interactions with the soil microbiome, resulting in enhanced resistance to recurrent attacks by pests and diseases. However, how these internal (epigenetic) and external (microbial) memory pathways are established and maintained and how they interact remain poorly understood. The ERC-funded PlantMemo project investigates these processes in annual and perennial plants, aiming to uncover how plants manage epigenetic memory and to identify the genes and chemicals mediating disease-suppressive soil feedback. By integrating these insights, the project aims to provide a more holistic understanding of how plants adapt to biotic stress, enabling the development of new crop protection technologies.
Objective
Plants excel in adapting to changing environments, which relies on their ability to store and integrate information from previously encountered stresses. Without a cellular immune system or direct communication with their offspring, plants use alternative pathways to obtain defence memory and prepare their progeny against persistent threats. Biotic stress by pests and diseases triggers changes in the epigenetic makeup and root-associated microbiome of plants, resulting in a multi-faceted defence memory that enhances resistance to recurrent attacks. Despite the potential of these mechanisms to revolutionise crop protection, a comprehensive understanding remains elusive.
PlantMemo will transform our understanding of plant defence memory by exploring the internal (epigenetic) and external (microbial) pathways involved. Focusing on both annual and perennial plants, the project will answer the following questions:
1. How do plants write, maintain, and erase epigenetic memory?
2. What are the genetic, metabolic, and microbial drivers of external memory?
3. How do internal and external memory pathways interact and contribute to disease protection?
PlantMemo will combine the latest epigenomic profiling technology with novel reverse-(epi)genetics approaches to reveal the epigenetic network driving internal memory. Simultaneously, it will develop high-throughput phenotyping protocols to screen genetic mapping populations for key genes in the conditioning of disease-suppressive soils, which drives external defence memory, and link these to root exudation chemistry and microbiota. The project will further integrate these insights by exploring the interplay between internal and external defence memory and their respective roles in intra- and inter-generational stress adaptation.
By uniting multipiple biological disciplines, PlantMemo will uncover how plants adapt to the unpredictable and intermittent nature of biotic stress, paving the way for new crop protection technology.
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.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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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)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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.
Funding Scheme
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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.
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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) ERC-2024-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
S10 2TN SHEFFIELD
United Kingdom
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