GainGrain · Understanding genetic hubs in rice inflorescence architecture to increase grain yield
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-05-01 → 2021-04-30
- EU contribution
- €160,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-RI
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Understanding genetic hubs in rice inflorescence architecture to increase grain yield
Reproductive development, one of the most important stages in the plant life cycle, is essential for plant propagation, but also for crop yield. As a result, the molecular regulation of inflorescence architecture is an important research focus. Domesticated rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple crop and by far the most convenient model cereal for research. Often, the knowledge and tools developed in rice can be transferred and validated in other common and ‘orphan’ cereals. Rice has a complex inflorescence (panicle) whose architecture is established by iterations of branching, and is built by a group of undifferentiated, actively dividing cells forming the inflorescence meristem. The more branched is the inflorescence, the more grain it can produce. Therefore, if we could control inflorescence meristem activity to make more branched and/or longer inflorescence, with more room to set grain, we should be able to produce significant yield increases. Several genes that regulate rice inflorescence meristem activity have been already discovered, but only a very few of them could be used to make more productive plants. To fully exploit the potential of these genes for crop breeding, we need to advance our theoretical knowledge about how they work and are connected, which is the aim of this action, ‘GainGrain’.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
GainGrain addresses grain (fruit) production in rice, which is one of the most important cereals species, a major staple food and the most important model plant for the wide and important phylogenetic group of monocots.GainGrain intends to improve yield by dissecting the regulatory mechanisms that control the branched inflorescence architecture of rice, aiming to both identify new functions and analyze the regulatory networks of conserved transcription factors. This will enable us to determine, and eventually optimize, rice inflorescence morphogenesis. Nevertheless, GainGrain is designed to transfer the knowledge and molecular tools obtained in rice to other crops, not just other cereals but even eudicot crops. Identifying and understanding the role of molecular networks, their direct targets and interactors, and their involvement in regulating the number of inflorescence branches and flowers in each species, would provide evolutionary and developmental insights and new major targets for crop yield improvement.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MadridCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union