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

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，果树的芽和顶端进入休眠状态，以应对低温和短日照。长时间暴露在寒冷中可以克服这种休眠，使生长在春天恢复。控制这些周期的环境线索，如冬季和春季温度，随着气候变化威胁产量而改变。然而，我们培育新树种的能力受到阻碍，我们缺乏知识的分子和遗传机制的基础上，这些经济上重要的环境反应。FruitFlow项目汇集了一个由五个学术和三个商业合作伙伴组成的国际财团，以解决两种重要的多年生作物：苹果和桃的这些问题。我们将开发预测和促进花卉和水果生产的新技术。首先，我们将获得不同苹果和桃品种的季节性行为的数据。将每天记录生长地点的气候条件，同时将使用无人驾驶航空器定期获取航空图像，并对叶片和芽进行近红外光谱测量。计算建模方法将被用来预测品种在不同环境中的行为。其次，我们将确定苹果和桃品种的行为和基因组多态性之间的遗传关联，使用现有的面板的每个物种的不同品种。第三，将在12月至次年2月之间分析苹果和桃芽的化学成分，以确定其外观与休眠周期不同阶段相关的小分子。与这些分子相互作用的蛋白质将通过共沉淀和计算方法进行鉴定。第四，将通过反向遗传学或转基因方法测试被鉴定为与小分子相互作用的蛋白质或来自关联研究的蛋白质的功能。由于产生转基因苹果和桃植物的困难和它们的长世代时间，这些实验将使用植物模型如杨树和多年生草本模型Arabis alpina进行。对于这两种物种，已经产生了快速转化方法。苹果和桃基因的功能将在这些模式物种中通过功能获得和丧失方法进行测试。第五，将测试被确定为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萌芽或开花的能力。因此，FruitFlow将通过汇集一个国际性的多学科联盟来解决欧洲农业中的一个重要问题，以产生果树芽休眠和萌芽的基础知识，并在田间条件下测试其意义。

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.