About

Crop yield stability is greatly dependent on the response of key developmental programs including flowering time, root development and pod shattering to stress conditions.

SYBRACLIM aims at understanding the mechanisms of adaptability to suboptimal environmental conditions of oilseed rape (B. napus) by uncovering the genetic, physiological and molecular bases of the regulation of these developmental traits in relation to environmental factors such as temperature or drought and their impact on crop yield.

The objectives of SYBRACLIM are:

• Identification of new breeding targets for high temperature and drought tolerance of oilseed rape.
• Assessment of the impact that high temperature and water stress have on yield parameters in genotypes of oilseed rape.
• Identification of genetic determinants for high temperature and water stress tolerance in oilseed rape.
• Identification of oilseed rape climatic stress tolerance genes suitable for entering breeding programmes.
• Development of predictive models for crop adaptation to climate conditions based on climate and oilseed rape genomic data.
• Identification of better strategies to adapt agricultural systems to climate conditions to secure yield of oilseed rape crops.

Results

SYBRACLIM has represented a successful multidisciplinary and innovative approach to characterise the phenotypic changes related to key developmental and growth processes in response to two highly influential environmental stresses (increased temperature and drought). We have specifically analysed the effects of heat and drought stress on productivity (oil and protein yield and content) in oilseed rape, Europe’s primary oilseed crop, and develop effective controlled-environment screening techniques to identify plant lines with improved tolerance to important stress factors.

SYBRACLIM has performed detailed analysis to identify key developmental and physiological parameters of cultivars associated with stress tolerance or resistance in oilseed rape. SYBRACLIM has brought together complementary research groups with comprehensive understanding of various stress-relevant plant physiological processes with groups applying population genomics, plant breeding and crop simulation modelling for performance evaluation in major crops, to deliver the main outcomes described below:

• Development and identification of promising genetic diversity for physiological parameters associated with stress tolerance in oilseed rape.
• The exploration of oilseed rape diversity set combined with an associative transcriptomic, metabolomics and genomics approaches has identify candidate genes that can be targeted in breeding programmes.
• Development of predictive models for crop adaptation to climate conditions based on climate and oilseed rape genomic data.