BREAKTHRU: developing soil compaction resistant wheat

突破：开发抗土壤板结小麦

• 批准号: BB/W008874/1
• 负责人: Malcolm Bennett
• 金额: $ 135.54万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FW008874%2F1
• 关键词: BREAKTHRU; developing; soil; compaction; resistant

Significant improvements in crop yields are urgently required to meet the increase in world population by 2050. The ability of a crop to efficiently absorb water and nutrients relies on its root system to fully explore the available soil. However, soil can become too hard for roots to penetrate. This is referred to as soil compaction and represents a major challenge facing modern agriculture due to changes in how fields are managed and increasing weight of modern farming equipment. If crop roots are unable to penetrate soil due to compaction, this results in reduced yields of 25%, and up to 75% when combined with drought stress. Over half of Europe's farmed soil are prone to compaction, costing billions of pounds of losses. Despite its importance, little was known about why roots actually stop growing in hard soils. A series of (literally) ground-breaking experiments by our team (Pandey et al, 2021, Science) recently revealed that roots are able to penetrate highly compacted soil after disrupting their sensitivity to a plant hormone signal called ethylene. The BREAKTHRU project proposes to exploit this new knowledge and re-engineer wheat to become resistant to hard soils by modifying their root responses to the signal ethylene. We will identify new wheat varieties whose roots are less sensitive to ethylene. Advanced imaging and artificial intelligence approaches will then be used to test whether the new wheat varieties we have selected are better able to grow in compacted soil and capture nutrients and water more readily. Finally, we will grow the most promising wheat lines in realistic field conditions including when soil has been compacted by farm machinery. The knowledge gained from this study will provide vital new information about the key genes controlling root responses to soil compaction, helping breeders to design novel approaches to overcome soil compaction and enhance resource capture and yield in crops supporting efforts to improve food security in the UK.

到2050年，迫切需要显着提高农作物产量，以满足世界人口的增长。农作物有效吸收水分和养分的能力依赖于其根系充分利用可用土壤。然而，土壤可能变得太硬，根部无法穿透。这被称为土壤压实，由于田地管理方式的变化和现代农业设备重量的增加，这是现代农业面临的一项重大挑战。如果作物根部因压实而无法穿透土壤，则会导致产量减少 25%，如果与干旱胁迫相结合，产量减少高达 75%。欧洲一半以上的耕地容易板结，造成数十亿英镑的损失。尽管它很重要，但人们对为什么根实际上在坚硬的土壤中停止生长却知之甚少。我们的团队（Pandey 等人，2021 年，《科学》）最近进行的一系列（字面意义上的）突破性实验表明，根部在破坏其对称为乙烯的植物激素信号的敏感性后能够穿透高度压实的土壤。 BREAKTHRU 项目提议利用这一新知识并重新设计小麦，通过改变其根部对信号乙烯的反应，使其对硬土具有抵抗力。我们将鉴定根部对乙烯不太敏感的新小麦品种。然后将使用先进的成像和人工智能方法来测试我们选择的新小麦品种是否能够更好地在压实的土壤中生长并更容易地捕获养分和水分。最后，我们将在现实的田间条件下种植最有前途的小麦品系，包括当土壤被农业机械压实时。从这项研究中获得的知识将提供有关控制根部对土壤压实反应的关键基因的重要新信息，帮助育种者设计克服土壤压实的新方法，并提高作物的资源捕获和产量，支持改善英国粮食安全的努力。

项目成果

Turning up the volume: How root branching adaptive responses aid water foraging.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2023.102405
• 发表时间: 2023-06
• 期刊: Current opinion in plant biology
• 影响因子: 9.5
• 作者: P. Mehra;Rebecca Fairburn;N. Leftley;Jason Banda;M. Bennett

Uncovering root compaction response mechanisms: new insights and opportunities.

• DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erad389
• 发表时间: 2024-01-10
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
• 影响因子: 6.9
• 作者: Pandey, Bipin K.;Bennett, Malcolm J.
• 通讯作者: Bennett, Malcolm J.

X-ray CT reveals 4D root system development and lateral root responses to nitrate in soil

• DOI: 10.1002/ppj2.20036
• 发表时间: 2022-01-01
• 期刊: The Plant Phenome Journal
• 作者: Griffiths, M.