Project description
Root-based approach to breed drought-resistant cereal crops
Water deficit limits global agriculture and climate change worsens this. Breeding drought-resistant crops is essential. However, root traits are often overlooked due to phenotyping challenges. The ERC-funded FoodDrought project will improve the water-use efficiency of maize under drought stress by leveraging a genome-wide survey of root water transport. It will employ a pyramid strategy involving multiple quantitative trait loci and assess nearly isogenic and mutant inbred lines under drought conditions using high-throughput phenotyping. Genomic sequencing of 245 maize inbred lines will help identify beneficial alleles related to root hydraulics, providing breeders with key genetic insights. The strategy will incorporate genome editing or traditional breeding to enhance water efficiency in elite maize lines.
Objective
Water is the most limiting environmental factor for agricultural production worldwide and climate change exacerbates this threat. Breeding plants with improved resistance to drought is therefore a priority. Although roots play a strategic role in plant drought responses, their traits have been poorly explored by breeders, primarily due to the challenges associated high-throughput phenotyping. In this PoC project, we propose exploiting a whole genome survey of root water transport capacity recently obtained in maize and transfer this knowledge to modify the water economy of plants under drought stress. To achieve this, we will utilise the physiological link between root hydraulics, plant transpiration and growth that was discovered in this species and show that it can represent a novel trait network to be utilised in cereal breeding programmes. We will explore a new pre-breeding design using a pyramid strategy with up to four independent Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs). Relevant nearly-isogenic or mutant inbred lines and a related F2 population will be cultivated under drought stress in a high-throughput phenotyping platform and phenotyped for plant growth and transpiration using specialized image analysis and gas exchange devices. In addition, we will use genomic sequencing in a diversity panel of 245 maize inbred lines to characterize the allelic diversity of the corresponding genes and identify the alleles with the most pronounced effects on root hydraulics. These approaches aim to provide breeders with the most relevant genetic information. In future, information on more than 20 other root hydraulic QTLs may be exploited in similar way. Overall, the proposed breeding approaches can be implemented using either genome editing or conventional breeding (introgression of favorable alleles) in elite lines. Based on an as yet unexplored root trait, these approaches will enable the water economy of the elite lines to be tailored via haplotype-informed breeding.
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.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
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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
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.
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-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-POC
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75794 Paris
France
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