Exploring belowground traits in crops and their wild relatives to improve food security in times of drought.

Food security challenges mean that we need to increase global crop production in order to feed the world's growing population, under conditions of global change. Focusing on belowground plant traits, and especially root exudation, has strong promise in this regard. Exudation is the release of a vast array of compounds into the soil, and root exudates are involved in a wide range of biotic and abiotic interactions. This project aims to extend our understanding of the importance of root processes, especially exudation, through a focus on wild relatives of modern crops. Wild relatives provide a large potential source of information and genetic material and have already been identified as having desirable traits. Recent work has indicated that differences exist between root exudates of wild and crop species, providing evidence that it is worthwhile to focus on these root traits in crop wild relatives. The overall objective is to study the differences between crops and their wild relatives in terms of root exudation and the rhizosphere microbial community. This will allow us to identify belowground plant traits that could improve crop yield amount and stability and quantify the impact of agriculture on soil microbial diversity. My specific objectives are: 1)To discover if there are consistent differences between root exudate quantity and composition in crops and wild relatives and how this is related to plant species phylogeny; 2) To understand the interaction between domestication and drought on root exudation; 3) To understand how rhizosphere microbial diversity differs between crops and their wild relatives and between agricultural and non-agricultural soils. The results will have implications for plant breeders, farmers, and policymakers.

Keywords:FOOD SECURITY

Disciplines:Terrestrial ecology, Plant ecology, Plant morphology, anatomy and physiology, Crop science

Project type:Collaboration project