Project description
The biological nitrification of wheat and maize plant roots
Around 120 million tonnes of nitrogen fertiliser are used globally annually in agriculture. However, crops don’t absorb about 70 % of this nitrogen, contributing to water pollution and nitrous oxide emissions. One potential solution is reducing the nitrification rate in agricultural soil through the biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) of plant roots. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the ExuRoots project studies the root exudates of wheat and maize genotypes to identify their BNI compounds and evaluate their potential under drought stress. There is potential to discover new BNI compounds. The project will characterise the biochemical traits of the germplasm collection and understand the BNI capacity to promote sustainable agriculture.
Objective
Globally, the use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer for agricultural purposes is tremendous, with an estimated total of 120 million t/year. Due to high nitrification activity in the soil, much of the N applied to farmland (about 70%) is not absorbed by the crops and gets washed out, resulting in water pollution and the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful greenhouse gas (298 times CO2 global warming effect). Suppressing the nitrification rate of agricultural soil could be a sustainable solution. Plant roots can exudate natural compounds that prevent nitrification, a process known as biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). Wheat and maize are staple cereals that require excess fertilizers, and their efficiency has not increased to meet future food demand since 1980. The main aim of this study is to screen root exudates secondary metabolites of diverse wheat and maize genotypes for their BNI compounds and also evaluate the BNI potential under drought stress. Even though wheat and maize are major cereals covering the largest area among food crops, the study of its root exudates and the potential presence of BNI compounds and related BNI capacity have scarcely been studied. Consequently, the discovery possibility of new BNI compounds remains minimally explored in these crops, and root exudate plasticity in response to environmental changes is still extremely limited. The evaluation and selection of crop varieties lowers the nitrogen fertilizer dependency and is suitability for sustainable agriculture translates into specific key activities; 1) biochemical characterization of agronomic and environmental traits of the germplasm collection, 2) measurement of secondary metabolites in root exudates of germplasm lines in glasshouse under drought stress conditions to explore the full diversity of natural metabolic variation and BNI activity, and 3) potential isolation of new BNI compounds, and understand how plant traits and phylogeny are associated to this capacity.
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 biological morphology comparative morphology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
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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.1.2 - 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.
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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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1010 Wien
Austria
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