EUCLEG aims to reduce Europe and China’s dependency on protein imports by developing efficient breeding strategies for the legume crops of major economic importance in human food and animal feed. The objective is to improve diversification, crop productivity, yield stability and protein quality of both forage (alfalfa and red clover) and grain (pea, faba bean and soybean) legumes. Using diverse and extensive genetic resources and taking advantage of advanced molecular tools, EUCLEG aims to identify and develop the best genetic resources, phenotyping methods and molecular tools to breed legume varieties with improved performance under biotic and abiotic stresses in the representative European and Chinese agro-ecological areas. The potential for new uses of forage species for human nutrition will be explored. Searchable databases will be developed or built to host passport, agronomic and genetic data facilitating exchanges and use of genetic resources. The evaluation of genetic resources in multi-site trials will allow to broaden the breeding material and extend agro-ecological adaptation. The genetic architecture of key breeding traits will be analysed using association studies in order to identify molecular markers related to phenotypic traits. Finally, genomic selection strategies will be assessed for their potential to improve genetic progress. Practical tools for genotyping, data management and calculation will be provided to breeders to implement marker-assisted selection and genomic selection leading to the creation of new varieties in the long-term. The partnership gathered in EUCLEG, combining public institutes and private companies of Europe and China, guaranties the transfer of knowledge from research to seed industry.

Background: Drought is an important environmental stress limiting the productivity of major crops throughout the world. Recent reports suggest that periods of drought will be increasingly common. A high priority for the future is to develop drought-tolerant crops that produce significant yields with reduced amounts of water. The plant cell wall plays an important role in conferring drought tolerance as this involves restructuring of the cell wall to allow growth at lower water content. Water loss affects turgor pressure, affecting the extensibility of the plant cell wall (1). Drought leads to changes in the expression of cell wall related genes (2), the activity of cell wall matrix enzymes (3), cell wall polysaccharides (3) and the accumulation of cell wall phenolics such as lignin and ferulic acid (4,5). Given the apparent importance of cell wall related processes to drought resistance, there is a pressing need for correlating changes in expression of genes involved in cell wall biogenesis with changes in secondary metabolite profiles and cell wall polysaccharides during drought / water-deficit stress. DLF-Trifolium has one of the largest grass research and breeding programmes and is continually seeking to exploit new opportunities to improve the quality and reliability of its varieties. This project will apply IBERS-based expertise in cell wall biology, abiotic stress and specifically in the new model grass Brachypodium distachyon to the DLF-Trifolium grass breeding programmes. It will rapidly identify genetic elements (markers and genes) which will be translated to DLF-Trifolium breeding programmes, providing immediate economic impact. Aim & Strategy: This project will establish the links between changes in cell wall chemistry and regulatory gene expression with drought tolerance by exploiting variation in the model grass Brachypodium distachyon which is rapidly developing as the Arabidopsis equivalent for the grasses. Its genome has recently been sequenced and microarrays as well as T-DNA mutants are available. IBERS holds one the largest collection of Brachypodium and this will be screened for differences in drought tolerance. Drought responses in selected accessions will be characterised using Brachypodium Affymetrix arrays, focusing on genes involved in cell wall biogenesis. In collaboration with DLF-Trifolium, allele variation for selected candidate genes will be determined amongst the accessions and correlated with drought tolerance. These alleles will be used by DLF-Trifolium to screen grass germplasm for integration into their breeding programmes. Gene expression and allele variations will be related to cell wall chemistry using established methods developed within our group including electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry(n) and 2D NMR (6). Mechanistic links between candidate genes, cell wall chemistry and drought tolerance will be established using Brachypodium T-DNA mutants. Output & Impact: Grass crops must tolerate increasingly severe drought conditions to maintain agricultural production. Cell wall chemistry plays an important role in protecting plants from water-deficit stress but properties related to drought resistance remain uncharacterized especially in grasses. Using a multidisciplinary approach we will supply essential data for the development of food and energy crops better equipped for extreme environmental conditions. The integration of different methodologies will provide an excellent training opportunity for a PhD student. Given the importance of this research area, we expect the results to be published in high-impact journals. 1. Moore et al., (2008) Physiol Plantarum, 134, 237-245. 2. Bray, (2004) J Exp Bot, 55, 2331-2341. 3. Konno et al., (2008) J Plant Physiol, 165, 745-754. 4. Fan et al., (2006) Plant Physiol, 140, 603-612. 5. Hura et al., (2009) J Plant Physiol, 166, 1720-1733. 6. Parveen et al., (2008) Phytochemistry, 69, 2799-2806.

We need to increase the crop yield while reducing pesticide and use of inorganic fertiliser to meet the challenges of world population growth and climate change. Plant endophytic microorganisms can improve plant yield and enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stress as well as to pathogens under experimental conditions, but these effects are often not sufficiently stable for practical application. How do we boost the stability and reliability of the positive effects of endophytes on plants? We need to understand the genetic basis of beneficial interactions between crops and endophytes and extent this basis exhibits phenotypic plasticity at all interaction levels from the cellular to the field environment. This requires increasing our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of endophytes, including intra and inter-kingdom exchange and distribution of resources (nutrients), signalling and possibly regulation between and inside the partners, the mutual induced production of secondary metabolites and the environmental cues which influence crop-endophyte interactions. The genetic variation and its plasticity in host and microbe will be exploited in to establish crop breeding and inoculum production processes for boosting the establishment and stability of plant-microbe mutualisms to benefit crop development, stress tolerance, pathogen resistance and quality. In this project we will provide fundamental biological as well as practical knowledge about interactions between endophytes and plants. This improved understanding will pave the way for increased use of endophytes to improve sustainability and plant productivity in a reliable way. The participants in this project comprise many of the key institutions and industries working with these problems and provide a uniquely strong consortium to address the key issues. Furthermore, the consortium will train a new generation of scientists who have the insight and skills to continue this task in their careers.

The aim of BELIS is (i) to increase the competitiveness of the EU and Associated Countries legume breeding industry by improving the methodologies and the governance structures of the breeding sector; (ii) to design conditions that allow an efficient delivery of the achieved genetic progress to the breeders and seed industry, and to the other actors (registration offices, extension services, feed and food industry, farmers). The project will focus on seven forage crops and seven grain crop that are currently grown to produce feed (for ruminants – cattle, sheep, goat and monogastric animals – pig, poultry), food (as is or after processing) or to deliver ecosystem services. BELIS has three main objectives: (1) To develop tools and methodologies for cost-effective breeding programmes and deliver proofs of concept, with and for breeders, (2) To facilitate the economic and regulatory environment: variety registration, variety recommendation and business models, (3) To implement an efficient, ambitious and durable transfer of innovation through the BELIS platform that includes a network of breeders and actors from scientific research, extension services and seed, food and feed industries, as well as a training portfolio. By enabling the creation of improved varieties in many species, adapted to different areas and uses in Europe, this project is relevant for the destinations towards “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”, mainly contributing to “Access to a wider range of crops and breeds with a broadened genetic base is improved in line with global biodiversity commitments”. It also supports the “Practices in agriculture and forestry support biodiversity and the provision of other ecosystems services”. In addition, BELIS will have a positive input on natural biodiversity, reduction of air and water pollutions and farming system sustainability.