H2020 BRESOV Project: Genetic improvement for resilient, efficient, and sustainable organic plant production
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2018 -2023
- Assigned Budget 5.962.019,75 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website Proyecto BRESOV
The project addresses the urgent need to provide climate-resilient cultivars for organic vegetable production systems. These new cultivars will benefit organic farmers and the organic seed industry, providing the necessary security in the face of current and future climate change. In this project, genetic variation in broccoli, kohlrabi, beans, and tomato will be exploited to improve productivity, leveraging up-to-date knowledge of genome structure and function. This work will be enhanced by the active participation of farmers, advisory services, research institutes, breeding companies, and food processors from diverse geographical and climatic contexts in Europe and non-EU countries. The selection of pre-breeding/improvement lines for the three species will be carried out in organic vegetable growing systems, using an annual crop rotation system.
New cultivars will be selected for their efficiency in cultivation under water, heat, and nitrogen stress, their resistance to certain pests and diseases, and their desirable quality traits, such as flavor, visual appearance, and post-harvest yield. The Stakeholder Board will contribute to the project's expected outcomes. Crop genetic diversity will be broad, as we will utilize various landraces (LRs) and crop wild relatives (CWRs) provided by our partners for the planned pre-breeding and breeding activities. We will adopt an innovative approach, targeting plant traits related to the root zone, root growth, and architecture that allow for better interaction with the organic soil and its microbiome, for the benefit of end users.
This approach will ensure that available genetic resources and improved germplasm, combined with best farm management practices, improve resource use efficiency and productivity. The germplasm from this project will boost the production of new seeds for the organic agriculture sector and will also serve as a model for the improvement of other crops.
BRESOV aimed to improve organic farming by providing new, resilient and efficient pre-breeding/breeding lines and OHMs, selected for their sustainable production and their ability to improve agronomic techniques to increase the yield and quality of seed and related product production. A total of 274 genotypes/sources of traits important for organic production were identified (85 for Brassica oleracea L. crops and their wild relatives, 134 for beans, and 55 for tomatoes) for their resistance to specific biotic and abiotic stresses, and their interesting organoleptic and nutraceutical characteristics.
These applications are now available to BRESOV stakeholders or any other actor in the organic agriculture sector. The wide diversity of genotypes/sources of important traits available for organic production allows for improved resistance to biotic (drought, salinity, flooding, light-dark senescence, high temperatures) and abiotic (various plant diseases) stresses, as well as the organoleptic (soluble solids, acidity, firmness, color, aroma) and nutraceutical (antioxidant capacity, polyphenols, glucosinolates, volatile compounds, vitamins) traits of products. Increasing knowledge of the genome diversity and structure of the three crops to identify QTL, genes, and molecular markers, including the use of innovative approaches such as GWAS, facilitated the identification of 275 new genetic tools (bean 133, broccoli 84, and tomato 58). We evaluate crop density and nutritional protocols to increase the quantity and quality of organic seed production, improving soil fertility and plant-soil microbiome interactions.
Analysis of available and improved pathogen detection methods could be used by the seed industry and the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO). Several qPCR-based molecular methods allow for the identification and quantification of seed-borne pathogens. Screening for beneficial microorganisms (BMs) and bioactive natural compounds (NCs), with the goal of reducing chemical inputs to plant nutrition and improving the soil microbiome, can increase resilience, as observed in green bean crops grown under deficient irrigation regimes. BMs and NCs can be applied to directly protect organic broccoli, tomato, and green bean plants against pathogens, but they can also induce plant defense responses, as observed with chitosan-based products. Reductions in bacterial and fungal pathogen titers and disease severity in plants obtained from pathogen-inoculated seeds suggest a role for direct primary inoculum reduction.
Seed biopriming using MC and NC reduced disease severity in some cases when the pathogen and the treatment were inoculated into different plant organs. The effectiveness of seed treatment in containing bacterial and fungal diseases of tomato, however, does not preclude the optimization of strategies based on the selection of resistant cultivars while simultaneously aiming to increase plant references and reduce the spread of secondary inoculum.
BRESOV addresses the urgent need to provide climate-resilient cultivars for organic vegetable production, such as: organic producers and consumers and their associations; seed, agricultural, and food industries; technicians and researchers; and public bodies, such as provincial, regional, and national officials, council members, and nature reserve officers. BRESOV's new set of elite pre-breeding lines and organic heterogeneous materials (OHM) will offer safe alternatives under current and future climate change scenarios. BRESOV leveraged genetic variation in brassicas, beans, and tomatoes to improve productivity through newly acquired knowledge of genome structure and function. The selection of the pre-breeding lines for all three species was conducted in organic vegetable growing systems.
New cultivars, represented by OHM cultivars, were selected for their improved yield under drought, high temperature, and low nitrogen stress conditions, their resistance to key diseases, and their desirable quality traits, such as flavor, visual appearance, bioactive compounds, and postharvest yield. The crop genetic diversity analyzed included several landraces (LRs) and crop wild relatives (CWRs) provided by partners for pre-breeding/improvement. On-farm trials in multiple locations showed that good alternative varieties exist, especially for broccoli and beans. Plant traits related to the root zone and root growth, and architectural analyses, such as their interaction with organic soil and its microbiome, will benefit organic agriculture.
By adopting the new OHMs provided by BRESOV, combined with best farm management practices, organic farmers can improve resource efficiency and productivity, thereby providing a high quantity and quality of organic seeds. BRESOV will help increase the production of new seeds for broccoli, green beans, and tomatoes, and can serve as a model for the improvement of other crops.
The project addresses the urgent need to provide climate-resilient cultivars for organic vegetable production systems. These new cultivars will benefit organic producers and the organic seed industry, providing much-needed security in current and future climate change scenarios. In this project, we will exploit genetic variation in broccoli, kohlrabi, beans, and tomatoes to improve productivity, leveraging up-to-date knowledge of genome structure and function.
This work will be enhanced by the active participation of farmers, advisory services, research institutes, breeding companies, and food processors from diverse geographical/climatic contexts in Europe and non-EU countries. The selection of pre-breeding/improvement lines for the three species will be carried out in organic vegetable growing systems, using an annual crop rotation scheme. New cultivars will be selected for their efficiency when grown under water, temperature, and nitrogen stress, for their resistance to some pests and diseases, and for desirable product quality traits such as flavor, visual appearance, and post-harvest performance. The Stakeholder Board will contribute to the expected project outcomes.
Crop genetic diversity will be extensive, as we will utilize several landraces (LRs) and crop wild relatives (CWRs) provided by partners for planned pre-breeding and improvement activities. We will adopt an innovative approach, targeting plant traits related to the root zone and root growth, and an architecture that allows for better interaction with the organic soil and its microbiome, to benefit end users. This approach will ensure that available genetic resources and improved germplasm, combined with on-farm best management practices, improve resource use efficiency and productivity. The germplasm from this project will drive the production of new seeds for the organic farming sector and will also serve as a model for the improvement of other crops.
To address the nutritional challenges of a growing global population in the context of changing climate conditions, the EU-funded BRESOV project aimed to improve the productivity of vegetable crops in organic farming. Organic farming must scale and evolve to meet these challenges. Farmers will need crops that maintain nutritional value and are able to cope with multiple, unprecedented stressors in the coming decades. Without new climate-resilient crops, many smallholder farmers in the EU will close their businesses as their plants stop producing seeds.
The BRESOV (Breeding for Resilient, Efficient and Sustainable Organic Vegetable Production) project, which runs until April 2023, is working to discover and improve genetic resources for organic crop production for farmers across the EU and beyond. Through breeding programs, BRESOV is exploring the genetic diversity of three economically significant crops: broccoli, green beans, and tomatoes, improving their competitiveness for use in organic farming. “The overall objective of the BRESOV consortium is to increase plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and to adapt these varieties to the specific requirements of organic and low-input production processes,” explains Ferdinando Branca, Associate Professor of Horticulture and Floriculture at the University of Catania in Italy, and coordinator of the BRESOV project.
Finding the Right Genetic Resources Before they could develop climate-resilient crops, the BRESOV team had to find the right genes. The consortium assembled several crop collections, including numerous different morphotypes of each. Researchers then analyzed and compiled the genetic data for each of these crops to identify the parts of the code linked to specific traits. These traits include good flavor, high nutritional value, and resistance not only to pathogens and pests, but also to various abiotic stresses such as heat waves and drought. With this information, BRESOV was able to begin developing organic crop cultivars to evaluate their characteristics under real-world conditions. Improving Climate Resilience In a series of trials, members of the BRESOV consortium bred thousands of plants, including landraces (domesticated crops), inbred lines, commercial cultivars, and their wild relatives. Others were selected and introduced for their qualitative characteristics, such as color, size and structure, and their nutritional value (amount of antioxidants, polyphenols and glucosinolates).
Key project outcomes include the development of new resilient cultivars and crops with improved organoleptic and nutritional qualities, Branca says. BRESOV's work will also contribute to organic agronomic practices by increasing the production of high-quality organic seeds. Furthermore, the team developed advanced tools to monitor the sanitary quality of organic seed batches of broccoli, green beans, and tomatoes. "Our selection showed valuable sensory, nutritional, and nutraceutical characteristics for the three crops considered and will contribute to ensuring food security in Europe and the rest of the world," Branca concludes. Contributing to securing the future of food The BRESOV consortium is made up of 22 partners from nine EU Member States, as well as members from China, South Korea, Switzerland, and Tunisia. The results of BRESOV's activities and the elite crop genotypes will be disseminated until the end of the project and during the final conference, scheduled for late March 2023. "We hope that the results of our project will significantly contribute to the development of climate-resilient organic production systems, tailored to each context, in the face of imminent climate change scenarios," Branca concludes.
The project results contribute to improving the competitiveness of organic broccoli, green beans, and tomatoes. Approximately 2,000 accessions from BRESOV's core collections and breeding sets of the three species were genotyped and phenotyped. A total of 274 genotypes (pre-breeding/improvement lines, OHM) of broccoli, green beans, and tomatoes were selected and released, some of which are ready for registration in the EU Catalogue of Organic Varieties (EU Regulation 848/2018). For these new materials, their interaction with the environmental conditions of several evaluated European countries allows for the improvement of crop agronomic performances and production quality.
BRESOV provided recommendations to breeders, farmers, and growers on pre-breeding/improving and OHM lines, adapted locally rather than globally to organic farming. Future organic breeding in EU countries and abroad will also benefit from 275 new genotyping tools (molecular markers, QTLs and genes) detected, ranging from improved resistance to various biotic (e.g. drought, salinity, high temperatures, etc.) and abiotic stresses (tomato: Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. radicis lycopersici, TSWV and ToMV; broccoli: Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, Alternaria spp. and downy mildew; green bean: Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. phaseolicola and Fusarium solani f.sp. phaseoli), and organoleptic (size, soluble solids, acidity, firmness, colour parameters) and nutraceutical (polyphenols, glucosinolates, carotenoids, volatile compounds, antioxidant capacity) quality of the corresponding products.
BRESOV published protocols on genotypes, sowing date, crop density, fruit harvest, bioinoculants, and plant nutrition to increase the quantity and quality of seed production for the three crops, as well as to detect and protect seeds against eleven key diseases. BRESOV results will increase the availability of high-quality organic seeds and strengthen accessibility and trust in current and future organic farming systems, both within and outside the EU. BRESOV also worked to expand the adaptability of broccoli, green bean, and tomato cultivars in organic vegetable growing systems and to improve the interaction between new cultivars and the soil microbiome. BRESOV established useful collaborations between breeders, nurseries, farmers, agricultural and food industries, consumers, and researchers (a multi-stakeholder approach), with events that disseminated project results and boosted the competitiveness of brassica, green bean, and tomato crops. BRESOV actively collaborated with the H2020 projects LIVESEEDS and ECOBREED.
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CATANIA (UNICT)
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