2023
"News from Barley" is the new BEST-CROP newsletter, that wants to highlight how Next Generation Barley Plants will bring innovations that will replace non-renewable with renewable resources within the EU-funded BEST-CROP project.
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an EU-funded project to deliver novel crops with enhanced photosynthesis and tailored straw for the circular economy. (Press release)
Milan, 28 April 2023
Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the topic HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-02-two-stage, the BEST CROP project (Boosting photosynthESis To deliver novel CROPs for the circular bioeconomy) capitalizes on ground-breaking technologies to improve the photosynthetic properties and ozone assimilation of barley and deliver novel crops with tailored straws for industrial uses. To achieve these ambitious targets, the University of Milan lead a multidisciplinary alliance of 18 European plant breeding companies, straw processing companies and academic plant scientists aiming to use the major advances in photosynthetic knowledge to improve barley yield and to exploit the variability of barley straw quality and composition.
BEST-CROP targets barley, a major crop worldwide, with the European Union producing the largest share (almost 55 Mt grain/yr) and an almost equivalent amount of straw covering about 10% of EU arable land – aiming to:
• Mitigate ozone air pollution extremes during drought: by providing a strategy of air phytoremediation through the modulation of stomatal conductivity for ozone without a negative effect on drought tolerance and yield;
• Address the global food security crisis: by delivering highly productive barley breeding lines thanks to optimized photosynthesis features. Furthermore, barley represents an optimal model species for other cereals with a view to project medium-term replicability;
• Boost the growth of the circular bioeconomy: tailoring of barley straw for efficient transformation into high-value bio-based compounds and materials that replace products currently obtained from high-polluting industrial sectors with high dependency on non-renewable energy sources, with a focus on the feed and building sectors.
Acknowledging and respecting the current position of EU legislation on genetically engineered crops, BEST-CROP will drive forward based on highly innovative biotechnology and science that exploits natural- and induced-genetic variation. Nevertheless, BEST-CROP also exploits gene editing techniques providing barley genetic materials that could be exploited directly in breeding programs soon, or serve as proof-of-concept of gene function.
With a total funding of almost 6 million €, the BEST-CROP project is expected to start in July 2023 and end in June 2028.
Project Meets After 12 Months to Assess the Progress Made During the First Year and Plan Future Activities. (Press release)
Alès, 11 July 2024
The BEST-CROP Project Meets After 12 Months to Assess the Progress Made During the First Year and Plan Future Activities.
The BEST-CROP Project, funded by the European Union Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under the topic HORIZON-CL6-2022-CIRCBIO-02-02-two-stage, continues to pursue its objective of using groundbreaking technologies to improve the photosynthetic properties and ozone assimilation of barley, to develop novel crops with tailored straws for industrial use. The working group met in person at IMT Mines Alès (France) to mark the first 12 months of the project, discuss the results achieved, and outline the future project phases.
In recent months, the teams from UMIL, UNIPD and UTARTU have worked and collaborated to develop barley lines with increased photosynthetic efficiency. They have targeted various characteristics of barley plants, such as increasing chlorophyll, adjusting plant structure for better light use, speeding up light protection, reducing energy loss, and controlling how much ozone the plants absorb. These changes aim to boost the plants' growth and yield.
The teams from UNIVDUN, CREA, JHI and UP have also been engaged in the identification of genotypes with improved straw composition for different industrial purposes, focusing on lignin and protein content. They aim to increase the protein content of straw to make it suitable as an alternative feed source and to control the cellulose/lignin content and lignin properties to suit downstream applications. Additionally, the teams from UTARTU, CREA, ULUND and IMT are also working on the physiological and agronomical characterization of barley lines under greenhouse and field conditions.
Finally, a team from JHI is focusing on data management and biostatistics/bioinformatics support through the integration of two different platforms: GridScore and Germinate. The partners ITB and FRD-CODEM are taking care of the communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results obtained during the development of the project through a carefully planned communication program using social media pages, a website, and the development of communication materials. This strategy explains the benefits of creating Next Generation Barley Plants, which aim to replace non-renewable resources with renewable alternatives, thus promoting the development of the circular bioeconomy.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them
