circlePLANT · Deciphering the eccDNA inheritance with novel plant eccDNA genetic tools
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31
- EU contribution
- €214,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Deciphering the eccDNA inheritance with novel plant eccDNA genetic tools
Global challenges such as climate change and food insecurity demand innovative solutions to increase crop resilience and productivity while reducing environmental impact. By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.1 billion, requiring a 70% increase in food production. Current agricultural practices rely heavily on fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, which have caused substantial soil degradation, water eutrophication, and depletion of non-renewable nutrient sources. In response, the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), European Green Deal, and Farm to Fork strategy emphasize sustainable, low-input agriculture to balance productivity and environmental health. The circlePLANT project explored the role of extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) in plants as a potential mechanism for stress adaptation and transgenerational inheritance of stress memory. EccDNA, a unique form of genetic material found in all eukaryotic organisms, may carry stress-responsive genetic information across generations, providing plants with an adaptive advantage under adverse environmental conditions. The project aimed to address two key objectives: Develop a genetic toolbox to study eccDNA biogenesis in plants, focusing on CRISPR/Cas9-based systems to create and track specific eccDNAs. Characterize the inheritance of eccDNAs, particularly their transmission during meiosis from the parental sporophyte to gametes and progeny, with an emphasis on heat stress (HS)-induced eccDNAs. These objectives were designed to advance fundamental plant biology, inform strategies for improving plant stress resilience, and align with European Union sustainability goals.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Enhancing plants natural innate and immune systems for the generation of primed plants that will better withstand stressors, can be an effective way to reduce losses in crop production. These systems are broadly defined under the plant transgenerational inheritance (TI) of stress memory, which is based on the heritability of attained traits caused by environmental conditions. I propose a new player in plant TI: the extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA). EccDNA is recognized as a major source of genetic variation behind key adaptive traits. I hypothesize that stress-responsive eccDNAs in the soma of a plant can be considered as adaptive toolkits, that can be transferred to the gametes during meiosis, and thus to the progeny. Thus, I have developed an ambitious but feasible plan, to bridge two major gaps in this context: (1) We require innovative technologies to prove causation, so I will develop the first and novel genetic toolbox to study eccDNAs in plants, by targeted circularization driven by the novel CRISPR-C system; (2) We lack knowledge about how eccDNAs are inherited, so I will characterize the transmission of eccDNAs from the soma to the gametophyte in Arabidopsis, through genome-scale (Circle-seq) and cytological analysis (FISH). CirclePLANT offers a unique opportunity for the development of a new line of research, with potentially remarkable impact because it will explore the bases for eccDNA-based technologies that may be useful in crop breeding, ultimately leading to the generation of stable climate-smart crops, which fits with the environmental objectives of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of improving crop yields by applying low-input agricultural practices.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNCoordinatorDenmark
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101068070
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5115f270f&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5f870cbed&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union