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Rhizosphere traits to improve crop breeding for enhanced P efficiency under water limitation
Project
Project code: 2821BIJP02
Contract period: 01.11.2021
- 31.12.2024
Budget: 279,090 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Keywords: crop production, microorganisms, plant breeding, Ressourceneffizienz, resource efficiency, wheat, farmyard manure, other cereals
The inefficient use of phosphorus (P) in the food chain is a threat to aquatic environments while at the same time it is depleting an essential finite natural resource critical for food security of future generations. Enhancing the resilience under climate change scenarios and improving the resource efficiency of modern crop cultivars in order to minimize the environmental footprint of modern agriculture are two of the future challenges, even in countries with advanced agricultural sectors as Japan and Germany. In both challenges, root and rhizosphere traits will play a major role as the efficient acquisition of nutrients and water is at the heart of the problem. Recent research has shown that the uptake of P and water are interrelated, as P availability decreases in drying soil. Traits considered important to maintain root activity and P uptake in such scenario are the release of P-solubilizing exudates such as mucilage and phosphatases, the interaction with P-mobilizing rhizo-microorganisms and the length of root hairs. The main objective of this project is to identify root and rhizosphere traits for which sufficient genotypic variation exists to be considered in plant breeding for the development of climate-ready, resource-efficient cereal cultivars.
Section overview
Subjects
- Plant Breeding
- Plant Nutrition
- Resource management