Nuevos criterios de mejora aplicados a los cultivos cereales en un contexto de cambio climáticocaracterización de procesos implicados en la asimilación y removilización de nutrientes

Resumen

Climate change is a reality that society has to face. In agriculture, the scientific community must provide knowledge that will lead to mitigate the effects of climate change. In a context of increasing world population, food production is a challenge for the society. Cereals constitute more than 50% of world agricultural production. Wheat is a key species in the world's food, and the quality of the flour obtained from it may be impaired by stress factors associated with climate change. Water and N shortage together with elevated ambient temperature will negatively affect current crop production. Increases in water shortage periods and temperature increase, together with restrictions on nutrient supplies, have been proposed as the inductors of the stagnant crop yields. Moreover, studies conducted during the last year remark the fact that the amount of nitrogen and grain protein are reduced when wheat grows in the presence of high [CO2]. To be noted that, those studies analyzing [CO2] focus on a concentration value that is expected to reach in 34 years (middle of this century). Within such context, it is mandatory to look into the genetic variability of wheat genotypes and identify agronomic and molecular traits linked with a wheat high in production and quality within a Climate Change context. The main objective of the study is the use of new wheat selection criteria to identify better adapted genotypes, in production and quality, to the increase of [CO2] related to climate change. This proposal addresses the traits (ranging from yield and quality level to physiological, metabolomics, proteomic and genomic level) related to a more efficient agronomic performance. The final deliverable will be genotypes and crop management protocols ensuring high yield and grain quality within a framework of optimized nutrient use efficiency (NUE). The project will characterize, in a first step, 20 durum wheat and 8 tritordeum genotypes fertilized with two N fertilization levels. In a second step, 4 durum wheat and 6 tritordeum genotypes (already selected having high/low NUE and grain quality) will be exposed to elevated [CO2] and water stress in our [CO2]-controlled greenhouses.