Predicting and tuning seasonal responses of apple and peach to improve orchard yield and climate change resilience

预测和调整苹果和桃子的季节反应，以提高果园产量和气候变化抵御能力

• 批准号: 459502274
• 负责人: Professor Dr. George Coupland, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/459502274?language=en
• 关键词: Predicting; tuning; seasonal; responses; apple

Seasonal patterns of growth and flowering are crucial for successful fruit production and yield. During autumn and early winter, buds and apices of fruit trees become dormant in response to low temperatures and short days. This dormancy is overcome by longer exposure to cold, allowing growth to resume in spring. Environmental cues such as winter and spring temperatures that control these cycles are altered with climate change threatening yield. However, our ability to breed new tree cultivars is hampered by our lack of knowledge of the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying these economically important environmental responses. The FruitFlow project brings together an international consortium of five academic and three commercial partners to address these issues for two important perennial crops: apple and peach. We will develop novel technologies for predicting and promoting flower and fruit production. First, we will acquire data on the seasonal behavior of diverse panels of apple and peach varieties. Climatic conditions at the growing sites will be recorded daily while regular aerial images will be acquired with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles together with Near InfraRed Spectroscopy measurements on leaves and buds. Computational modeling approaches will be used to predict the behavior of cultivars in different environments. Second, we will identify genetic associations between the behavior of apple and peach cultivars and polymorphisms in their genomes using existing panels of diverse cultivars of each species. Third, the chemical content of apple and peach buds will be analyzed between December and February to identify small molecules whose appearance correlates with different stages of the dormancy cycle. Proteins that interact with these molecules will then be identified by co-precipitation and computational methods. Fourth, the functions of proteins identified as interacting with small molecules or from the association studies will be tested by reverse genetics or transgenic approaches. Due to the difficulty of generating transgenic apple and peach plants and their long generation time, these experiments will be performed using plant models such as poplar trees and the perennial herbaceous model Arabis alpina. For both of these species rapid transformation methods have been generated. The function of apple and peach genes will be tested in these model species by gain and loss of function approaches. Fifth, chemicals identified as accumulating at different stages of the dormancy process will be tested for their capacity to stimulate bud break or flowering of apple and peach by direct application. Thus, FruitFlow will contribute to solving an important current problem in European Agriculture by bringing together an international, multidisciplinary consortium to produce fundamental knowledge on bud dormancy and budbreak in fruit trees and to test its significance under field conditions.

生长和开花的季节性模式对于成功的水果生产和产量至关重要。在秋季和初冬，果树的芽和顶端因低温和短日照而进入休眠状态。这种休眠可以通过更长时间地暴露在寒冷中来克服，从而在春季恢复生长。随着气候变化威胁产量，控制这些循环的冬季和春季温度等环境因素也会发生变化。然而，由于我们缺乏对这些经济上重要的环境反应背后的分子和遗传机制的了解，我们培育新树木品种的能力受到阻碍。 FruitFlow 项目汇集了由五个学术合作伙伴和三个商业合作伙伴组成的国际联盟，旨在解决两种重要的多年生作物：苹果和桃子的这些问题。我们将开发预测和促进花卉和水果生产的新技术。首先，我们将获取不同苹果和桃品种组的季节性行为数据。将每天记录生长地点的气候条件，同时将使用无人机定期获取航空图像以及叶子和芽的近红外光谱测量。计算建模方法将用于预测品种在不同环境中的行为。其次，我们将使用每个物种不同品种的现有面板来确定苹果和桃品种的行为及其基因组多态性之间的遗传关联。第三，将在 12 月至 2 月之间分析苹果和桃芽的化学含量，以确定其外观与休眠周期不同阶段相关的小分子。然后通过共沉淀和计算方法来鉴定与这些分子相互作用的蛋白质。第四，被鉴定为与小分子相互作用或关联研究的蛋白质的功能将通过反向遗传学或转基因方法进行测试。由于转基因苹果和桃植株的产生难度大且世代时间长，这些实验将使用杨树和多年生草本模型高山南芥等植物模型进行。对于这两个物种，已经产生了快速转化方法。苹果和桃子基因的功能将通过功能获得和丧失的方法在这些模型物种中进行测试。第五，将测试在休眠过程的不同阶段积累的化学物质直接施用刺激苹果和桃子发芽或开花的能力。因此，FruitFlow 将汇集一个国际多学科联盟，提供有关果树芽休眠和发芽的基础知识，并在田间条件下测试其重要性，从而有助于解决欧洲农业当前的一个重要问题。