Investigation
Extreme climate conditions like drought, flood and heat events are predicted to be more frequent in the near future. European agriculture will require crops able to cope with variable environmental conditions without altering their productivity. Crop yield stability is dependent on the response of key developmental programs like root development to stress conditions. Our research will advance our understanding of the mechanisms of how plants integrate developmental and growth processes in response to extreme environmental conditions. This knowledge will provide the basis on which more efficient production of crops can be achieved and make a significant contribution to breed new varieties. Our research group is focused on finding new root development traits associated with plant adaptability to extreme conditions produced by climate change and in uncovering the genetic and molecular factors regulating root development in response to soil and environmental conditions. In particular, our research programme involves two main fields:
Analysis of root developmental traits associated with plant adaptability to extreme conditions in the Brassicaceae family.
European farmers are currently tackling the crucial challenge of securing crop yield by adapting agricultural practices and crop varieties to climate change. Europe's premium oilseed crop, oilseed rape (Brassica napus) is one of the world's most important sources of high-quality vegetable oils for human nutrition and biofuels, and particularly in Europe is also a major contributor to vegetable protein diets for ruminant livestock. Plants are highly responsive to small differences in temperature and adjust their growth and development accordingly. Although great progress has been made in improving crop tolerance to adverse environmental stresses, so far most efforts have targeted above-ground traits. Roots are essential for plant adaptation to environment and crop productivity, but have been less studied due to the difficulty of observing underground organs during the plant life cycle. Our group is investigating the impact of prolonged elevation of ambient temperature, recapitulating the consequences of global warming, on root development traits in a genetically diverse panel of oilseed rape genotypes. Using a combination of genetic, molecular and genomic tools we are analysing the effect of temperature on root traits and studying the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying this response. Our aim is understanding how oilseed rape plants integrate developmental and growth processes in response to temperature. This knowledge will provide the basis on which more efficient production of oilseed rape can be achieved and make a significant contribution to breed new varieties.
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Study of root adaptation to soil and environment during plant evolution
Addressing the global challenges of climate change and food security is linked to the use of our plant biodiversity. Roots provide the interface between plants and the soil environment. Their major function is to extract from the soils the water and nutrients that are required for growth and to ensure plant productivity. Plants have evolved a wide range of below-ground strategies to respond to changes in the availability of both elements due to variable environmental conditions. These responses include changes in architectural traits (root depth and length, lateral roots number, density and length, root angle) that determine the spatial configuration of the whole root systems; and morphological traits (root diameter, number and length of root hairs). The analysis of this root response in landraces and local populations adapted to specific challenging environmental conditions, will provide us with new genetic tools needed to improve the efficiency of crops to climate variability. To achieve it we will explore the diversity of root adaptive traits of two economically important vegetable species of the Brassica genus, B. oleracea and B. rapa, native of the Mediterranean basin. We will perform deep phenotyping for root architecture by measuring these traits on natural populations of these two species across a broad environmental gradient encompassing climate and soil variation, mimicking the extreme conditions in which populations were collected. Then, we will determine the genetic bases of these traits underlying local adaptation. Our analysis will contribute significantly to understand how roots respond to changes in soil and climate conditions and how this adaptation has been acquired during plant evolution. In summary, our studies will help us to face two of the global issues of our society, food security and impact of changing environment conditions on plant diversity.
