Fortifying and Enhancing Resilience in C4 Crops for Current and Future Climate Change Adversities

世界人口的迅速增长和工业的发展导致地球生物圈中二氧化碳浓度的增加。当前的气候变化情景预测了更温暖和更干燥的环境，具有C4光合途径的作物将比C3作物更受欢迎。因此，世界将严重依赖C4作物。虽然C4植物仅占所有植物物种的3%，但它们占所有年度净初级生产力的近四分之一，使其成为生态中心。C4 FUTURE将研究两种重要的C4谷类作物：玉米和高粱。玉米可以加工成各种食品、动物饲料和工业产品。山梨醇在动物饲料、生物能源和特殊健康促进（富含抗氧化剂）食品的生产方面具有很大的潜在收益吸引力。C4 FUTURE将开发新的气候适应型和育种技术，以显著维持欧洲的谷物生产力和价值链。生产率增长的适当衡量标准是全要素生产率（TFP）增长（即农业部门生产的产出总量除以用于生产这些产出的投入总量）。C4 FUTURE将展示约三分之一的生产力增长，这意味着五年内的年增长率将超过两倍（美国农业部）。通过在项目中实施的技术，以及由于从C4 FUTURE转移的技术而提高的其他种植系统的生产力，这是可能的。C4 FUTURE的其他预期关键绩效指标包括：（i）各> 200种玉米和高粱基因型，其特征在于气候变化适应性和强化营养品质，（ii）两个基因、蛋白质、抗氧化剂和代谢物在响应氮和水胁迫的谷物中表达，（iii）鉴定数百个胁迫适应性和抗氧化剂元QTL，（iv）开发新的基因组选择模型来预测产量和其他气候变化适应性性状，（v）鉴定和验证20个胁迫适应性和抗氧化剂等位基因/基因，（vi）适应预测气候情景的玉米和高粱理想型的20个配置文件，（vii）减少育种周期成本和持续时间，（viii）新的表型分析方案（例如，捕获根形态，探测光合作用）适用于其他作物物种和（ix）四十个原型系，其中10个品种预期在氮和水分胁迫下提高玉米和高粱的生产力30%。

The rapid increase of World population and industrial development are giving rise to increased carbon dioxide concentration in the Earth's biosphere. The current climate change scenarios predict warmer and dryer environments, and crops with a C4 photosynthetic pathway will be favored over C3 crops. Therefore the world will heavily rely on C4 crops. While C4 plants constitute only about 3% of all plant species, they account for nearly one fourth of all annual net primary productivity, making them central ecologically. C4FUTURE will study two important C4 cereal crops: maize (Zea mays) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). Maize can be processed into a variety of food, animal feed and industrial products. Sorghum is very attractive for potential gains in animal feed, bioenergy and the manufacture of specialty health-promoting (antioxidant rich) foods. Its popularity is resurging in Europe as a substitute for traditional grains diet and for meeting gluten-free needs.C4FUTURE will develop novel climate resilient ideotypes and breeding technologies to significantly sustain cereal productivity and value chains in Europe. The appropriate measure of productivity growth is Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth (i.e. aggregate quantity of outputs produced by the agricultural sector divided by the aggregate quantity of inputs used to produce those outputs. C4FUTURE will demonstrate about one third productivity increase, which in five-year perspective means more than a double annual growth rate (USDA). This is possible through technologies implemented within the project, and the improved productivity in other cropping systems owing to the technologies transferred from C4FUTURE.C4FUTURE’s other expected Key Performance Indicators include: (i) > two hundreds, each, maize and sorghum genotypes characterized for climate change resilience and fortified nutritional qualities, (ii) two comprehensive atlases of genes, proteins, antioxidants and metabolites expressed in cereals in response to nitrogen and water stress, (iii) identification of hundred stress-adaptive and antioxidant meta-QTL, (iv) novel genomic selection models developed to predict yields and other climate change resilience traits, (v) twenty stress-adaptive and antioxidant alleles/genes identified and validated, (vi) twenty profiles of maize and sorghum ideotypes adapted to projected climatic scenarios, (vii) cutting breeding cycle costs and duration, (viii) novel phenotyping protocols (e.g. capturing root morphology, probing photosynthesis) adaptable in other crop species and (ix) forty prototype lines, of which ten expected to improve maize and sorghum productivity under nitrogen and water stress by 30%.