| Project Detail |
Longevity engineered in perennial cereal crop
Current attempts to breed perennial cereals are hindered by hybridisation barriers between annual crops and wild perennial relatives and the trade-off between longevity and seed yield.The EU-funded PERLIFE project will address this challenge by engineering perennial traits in annual crops, using barley as a model system. Researchers will use high-throughput genome sequencing to identify genetic variants and Crispr/CAS9 genome-editing technology to target gene transfer between species. Using interspecific crosses, scientists will disentangle the relationship between longevity and seed yield and identify linked coding and regulatory variation. Results will inform designs and strategies for the modification of longevity in barley, which will be trialled in environmental simulation chambers to select the most successful engineering approach for the generation of perennial cereals.
Today, annual crops account for more than 85% of the worldwide calorie consumption. Annual crops are sown and harvested within one growing season and therefore require annual tillage, and application of herbicides and fertilizers that cause land and water degradation. In contrast, perennial crops grow over many seasons, require low agricultural input and thereby hold great potential for sustainable production systems and climate change adaptation. However, current efforts to breed perennial cereals are hindered by hybridization barriers between annual crops and wild perennial relatives and the trade-off between longevity and seed yield.
PERLIFE pioneers the knowledge-based engineering of perennial traits in annual crops using the important annual crop barley as study system. This project will thus open entirely novel avenues for breeding perennial crops. PERLIFE capitalizes on 1) recent technical advances in high-throughput genome sequencing for the identification of genetic variants and 2) the novel genome-editing technology Crispr/CAS9 for the targeted transfer of genes between species. PERLIFE will isolate genetic variants promoting perennial growth using comparative genomics in annual and perennial wild relatives of barley. In interspecific crosses, we will dissect the interrelationship of longevity and seed yield and identify linked coding and regulatory variation. Based on this information, we will design and implement strategies for the targeted modification of longevity in barley using transgenic approaches and genome editing. The engineered genotypes will be trialled in environmental simulation chambers for longevity, stable seed yield and stress resistance to select the most successful engineering strategy. This ground-breaking work will provide a highly efficient approach for the generation of perennial cereals and will thus have a profound impact on sustainable food production in the face of climate change and a growing human population. |
