Project description
Unveiling the mysteries of crop transformation
Crop domestication and phenotypic changes represent a fundamental challenge in biology. Scientists are studying the driving forces behind these transformations and the limitations they impose. Funded by the European Research Council, the CONSTRAINTS project will explore the extent to which artificial selection can overcome constraints that influence resource acquisition, utilisation, and partitioning. By investigating the interplay of ecophysiological and biophysical trade-offs, the project aims to shed light on how crop domestication has shaped these traits and the potential constraints on future improvements. With an interdisciplinary approach that combines field measurements, high-throughput phenotyping, comparative analysis, genomics, and more, CONSTRAINTS will pave the way for a transformative understanding of crop breeding, merging insights from ecology, evolutionary biology, and crop science.
Objective
A fundamental question in biology is how constraints drive phenotypic changes and the diversification of life. We know little about the role of these constraints on crop domestication, nor how artificial selection can escape them. CONSTRAINTS questions whether crop domestication has shifted ecophysiological and biophysical traits related to resource acquisition, use and partitioning, and how trade-offs between them have constrained domestication and can limit future improvements in both optimal and sub-optimal conditions.
The project is based on three objectives: 1. revealing the existence (or lack) of generic resource-use domestication syndrome in crop science; 2. elucidating ecophysiological and biophysical trade-offs within crop science and delineating the envelope of constraints for artificial selection; 3. examining the shape of ecophysiological and biophysical trade-offs in crop species when grown in sub-optimal environmental conditions. This project will be investigated within and across crop species thanks to a core panel of 12 studied species (maize, sunflower, Japanese rice, sorghum, durum wheat, bread wheat, alfalfa, orchardgrass, silvergrass, pea, colza, vine) for which data and collections (ca. 1,300 genotypes total) are already available to the PI, and additional high throughput phenotyping using automatons. Additional species will be used for specific tasks: (i) a panel of 30 species for a comparative analysis of crop species and their wild progenitors; (ii) 400 worldwide accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana for a genome-wide association study of resource-use traits. Collectively, we will use a multiple-tool approach by using: field measurement, high-throughput phenotyping, common-garden experiment, comparative analysis using databases, modelling, genomics.
The ground-breaking nature of the project holds in the nature of the questions asked and in the unique opportunity to transfer knowledge from ecology and evolutionary biology to crop species.
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 computer and information sciences databases
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy plant breeding
- natural sciences biological sciences botany
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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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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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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-2014-STG
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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.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.