FROOTS · Fast-tracking ROOTStock breeding in olive

Fast-tracking ROOTStock breeding in olive

Environmental adaptation plays a pivotal role in the successful cultivation of crops within specific geographic regions. Olive cultivars that exhibit resilience to a variety of abiotic constraints such as cold temperatures, heat stress, water scarcity, and nutrient-deficient soils have naturally evolved over millennia due to inadvertent selection. Nevertheless, these resilient cultivars often lack other desirable agronomic traits. While the potential for combining both sets of characteristics exists, the development of new cultivars with heightened abiotic stress tolerance is not a primary focus in current global olive breeding programs. Rootstock breeding emerges as a promising avenue to address some of the challenges posed by abiotic stressors. The selection of rootstock tailored to specific environmental conditions holds significant potential to address societal challenges within the European Union. The practice of employing rootstocks is prevalent across a wide spectrum of economically significant tree species, but in olives it could help to mitigate some challenges, especially food security and sustainable agriculture, empowerment of rural areas and adaptation to the effects of climate change. This can be achieved by identifying and obtaining new olive rootstock that due to their tolerance to abiotic factors and other characteristics, can: 1) decrease machinery, labour and chemical inputs to plants and soil; 2) increase the efficiency of water and soil use; 3) improve the quality of the product; and 4) improving olive growing in marginal areas. Moreover, the project offers substantial promise due to its capacity to expand the genetic diversity available for desirable rootstock attributes while concurrently facilitating the growth of the preferred scion cultivar, as well as by the techniques developed for the implementation of rootstock breeding. The objectives proposed in FROOTS have been accomplished as described below: - Objective 1: Methods have been developed to identify drought resistance in young olive plants - Objective 2: An early grafting methodology has been developed for young olive plants. - Objective 3: The methodology from the other objectives is being used to screen for drought resistance sexually-produced breeding populations.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union