The
Project
Impacts of Environmental Conditions on Seed Quality
1Sajjad
Awan,2 Ilse Kranner, 3Hugh W. Pritchard, 4Andreas Börner, 5Christophe Bailly, 6Wim Soppe,, 7Annie Marion8
9
10
11
1
Poll, Christine Foyer, Oscar Lorenzo-Sánchez, Anja Krieger-Liszkay, Philippe Cayrel, William Finch-Savage
1University,
Warwick, UK, 2University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria; 3Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wakehurst Place, UK; 4Leibniz Institute of Plant
Genetics and Crop Plant Research, IPK Gatersleben, Germany, 5Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, 6Max Planck Institute for Plant
Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany, 7INRA, Versailles, France; 8University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; 9Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain;
10CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France; 11LIMAGRAIN EUROPE, Verneuil l’Etang, France
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Climate change is predicted to increase
environmental stress to plants, and hence,
to developing seeds
It is hypothesised that stresses upon seed
storage and germination will exacerbate
previously experienced stresses
Seed stress model by Kranner et al. (2010) What is stress?
Concepts, definitions and applications in seed science.
New Phytologist 188, 655-673
EcoSeed is a € 3 million FP7-project coordinated
by the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
http://www.uibk.ac.at/botany/ecoseed/
Seed performance in a changing climate
Seed quality is of paramount importance to agriculture, food security and the conservation of wild species. Considerable economic losses result from sub-optimal seed performance, undermining food
security and livelihoods. Seed quality is strongly influenced by the environmental stresses experienced by the mother plant. Climate change will further exacerbate economic losses and decrease the
predictability of seed yield and quality for the farmer. The looming challenges of climate change and food security require new knowledge of how stress impacts on seed quality, as well as a re-appraisal
of optimal storage conditions. EcoSeed addresses these challenges by bringing together a group of European experts in seed science and converging sciences to characterise seed quality and resilience to
perturbation. EcoSeed combines state-of the-art "omics", epigenetics, and post-"omics" approaches, such as nuclear and chromatin compaction, DNA repair, oxidative and post-translational
modifications to macromolecules, to define regulatory switchboards that underpin the seed phenotype. Special emphasis is placed on the stress signalling hub that determines seed fate from
development, through storage, germination and seedling development, with a particular focus on seed after-ripening, vigour, viability and storability. Translation of new knowledge gained in model to
crop and wild species is an integral feature of EcoSeed project design, which will create a step-change in our understanding of the regulatory switchboards that determine seed fate. Novel markers for
seed quality and new "omics" information generated in this project will assist plant breeders, advise the seed trade and conservationists alike. In this way, EcoSeed will not only be proactive in finding
solutions to problems of ensuring seed quality and storability but also play a leading role in enabling associated industries to better capture current and emerging markets.
Arabidopsis
Seeds of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana L.
are representative of the endospermic seed type
within the dicotyledonous plants. It is a winter
annual plant native to Europe, Asia and Northwestern Africa with a short life cycle and a
relatively small genome of five chromosomes.
EcoSeed partners will study molecular and
biochemical pathways implicated in plant and
seed resilience to perturbation.
Knowledge gained from studying this model plant
and three crop species will be transferred to wild
species provided by the Millennium Seed Bank of
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the largest seed
bank for wild plant species globally.
Barley
Hordeum vulgare L. is one of the four
economically most important cereal crops
worldwide. Barley has starch-accumulating,
endospermic seeds and has a diploid genome of
seven chromosomes that was recently sequenced
by IPK scientists.
Brassica oleracea
Brassica oleracea L. is representative of vegetable
crops with endospermic, oily seeds. It is native to
Western and coastal Southern Europe and has a
diploid genome of 9 chromosomes. The genus is
highly diverse and contains important agricultural
and horticultural species (e.g. Chinese cabbage,
black mustard, cabbage, cauliflower).
EcoSeed partners will study the effects of
environmental stress on Brassica oleracea. The
University of Warwick houses the Warwick Crop
Centre with a multidisciplinary approach to
conduct fundamental research built around
Arabidopsis and Brassica sp., and can provide
interesting varieties from a collection of more
than 1,500 accessions.
Sunflower
Helianthus annuus L. is the second most
important oil crop in the EU after Brassica napus
(oilseed rape). It is an annual plant native to
America. The sunflower genome is diploid with a
base chromosome number of 17.
EcoSeed partners will study the effects of
environmental stress in more than 180
genotypes.
Sunflower seeds are useful models to study seed
dormancy. The UPMC Paris will provide promising
genotypes chosen from more than 700
accessions.
Suitable genotypes will be chosen from a
collection of more than 23,000 barley accessions
of the Federal ex situ genebank of Germany
housed at the IPK.
Limagrain is the third-largest sunflower breeder
in Europe and will produce commercial sunflower
seeds from plants grown at different
environmental conditions.