News - Detailed view

30.04.2024 

The Horizon 2020 EU project Accelerated Development of multiple-stress tolerAnt PoTato (ADAPT), in which Europatat is participating, aims to understand the signalling pathways for single and combined abiotic stresses to the selection of potato cultivars more resilient to climate change. One of the most key deliverables of the project, the “Stress Knowledge Map” (SKM) has been recently published in the scientific journal Plant Communications.

Developed by the team of researchers from the Slovenian National Institute of Biology (NIB), which is part of the ADAPT’s consortium, the SKM aims to assist in the development of resilient crop varieties, a crucial step in addressing the global food security challenges posed by climate change.

SKM combines large amounts of data on plant stress responses and molecular interactions into a single, structured platform, utilising knowledge graphs. “Such integration of data from diverse sources is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of how plants react to stresses like heat, drought, and pathogens,” explains Dr. Carissa Bleker, lead developer of the resource.

The interactive platform simplifies navigation of complex information, allowing researchers and agricultural professionals to explore how plants react under various stress conditions, to interpret data from new experiments, and form new hypotheses.

In the article published in Plant Communications, the utility of SKM was shown through two case studies: one examines the complex cross-talk between three plant hormones in activating a stress-related gene and the second explores the regulatory role of calcium in stress influenced proteins.

“SKM enables systematic hypothesis generation and design of validation experiments which are essential for advancing our understanding of plant biology,” said Dr. Kristina Gruden, the project’s lead. “But its application also extends beyond basic research, for example SKM can be used by breeders to find crucial information needed for crop improvement.”

Freely accessible online, SKM offers comprehensive tools for systems biology analysis, promising significant contributions in agriculture by supporting the development of stress-resistant crops, thus enhancing productivity and sustainability.

For more information about SKM, visit skm.nib.si.

The project is now already in its third year and to confirm the findings from previous years, also in 2023 several field trials are being conducted at different European locations: Large trials consisting of the same 54 potato varieties that have been tested in the previous years are being conducted in the Netherlands and Serbia, carried out by Meijer Potato and HZPC, respectively. In addition, smaller trials focusing on a selection of 16 varieties are being conducted by the AGES in collaboration with the NÖS in the Marchfeld, Austria.

ADAPT field trials are designed to resolve global molecular and physiological changes in potato plants exposed to multiple abiotic stressors and correlate them to tuber yield. In Austria and the Netherlands, the trials are being performed with and without irrigation to test specifically drought stress sensitivity. Moreover, in Serbia and Austria ADAPT researchers from the NIB in Ljubljana and the University of Vienna visited the trials to take samples for further molecular analyses. The weather conditions were quite challenging for the potatoes at all places but reflect the full spectrum of potential stress conditions: while fields were flooded at the trial in Serbia and plants are suffering from subsequent fungal and viral infections, strong heat- and drought stress are currently challenging potato plants at the Marchfeld trial run by the AGES in Austria.

Sampling of AGES field trials for in-depth analysis
Field trials in Serbia were visited by researchers from the NIB in Ljubljana on June 26 for the sampling of leaf material. The trials in Austria were sampled also on June 26 and again on July 11 after a strong heat- and drought period, which caused clear growth differences among the tested varieties, which became particularly obvious in the non-irrigated fields (Fig. 1).

Even though harvest did not take place yet, all teams expect to see clear differences in potato yield due to the combination of multiple stress conditions. It will be highly interesting to see differences in molecular acclimation strategies based on analysis of gene expression studies as well as proteomics and metabolite analyses, which will be carried out by the team from the University of Vienna from the samples taken in Austria.

For each trial, also drone flights were conducted, and RGB, thermal and multispectral images were collected. The first drone flight has taken place on May 31st and more flights were performed to follow growth and development. Harvesting and scoring of the trial are scheduled for late August or early September. Subsequent analyses will allow HZPC to take a closer look into stress genes involved in the responses to heat and drought. After harvesting, all samples will be sent to HZPC Research for further grading using an optical grader and additional measurements, such as determining underwater weight etc.

Within the project, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) together with the Austrian potato breeding company NOES (NÖ Saatbaugenossenschaft GmbH) conducts field trials with selected varieties with the aim to propose improvements to standard VCU protocols. In 2022, the first year of the Austrian potato variety trials was successfully accomplished. The same set of 16 potato varieties was grown at four different locations in Austria, some of which were characterized by severe drought in 2022. To reflect the importance of the organic sector in both Austria and the EU, the field trials were partially performed under organic farming conditions. Phenotypic evaluation of the varieties was complemented by different technological approaches. This generated large amounts of data that also feed into the NIB modeling approach to unravel key components important for adaptation to environmental stresses. The field trials also help to evaluate local performance and biotic stress tolerance of potato varieties selected from the comprehensive ADAPT field trials conducted in Spain and the Netherlands. Particular emphasis was placed on identifying relevant characteristics associated with abiotic stress response and assessing the possibility of including abiotic stress tolerance in variety evaluation.

All field trial sites were located in the main Austrian potato growing regions. They were mostly characterized by low annual precipitation and hot and dry summers (Pannonian climate), and one trial site by higher precipitation and a maritime-continental climate. Potatoes were planted in April 2022 and harvested between August and September, depending on the site. To provide a sufficient number of replicate samples for reliable conclusions on abiotic stress tolerance, each variety was grown in four replicate plots in each of the five trials.

Meijer Potato’s trials in the Netherlands
To continue ADAPT’s activities in 2022 and 2023 with seed potatoes all from same physiological background, Meijer Potato’s seed multiplication will be carried out in one location in Nagele. Here, 20 tubers per variety were planted. Thanks to normal circumstances and low virus-pressure not many remarks were made and shall be expected. In Lewedorp, Meijer Potato planted a drought trial field on soil that has a very low capacity to hold water, which means that in dry periods drought stress will occur relatively fast. The field is split in a drought stress block without artificial irrigation and a control block with automated drip irrigation

Even though harvest did not take place yet, Meijer Potato’s team does not expect to see any drought stress for 2021 as there was no dry period at all. The drip-irrigation system was active for 5 minutes in total (the test period at the start of the season!). The lack of drought stress is shown in the pictures below and especially in the drone image where no visual difference of canopy between the blocks can be detected. Despite there was no drought stress in the Netherlands this year, 2021 has been a good trial year for a perfect setup for 2022 and 2023.

The needs of potato growers are of fundamental interest for the researchers, industrial partners and breeders involved in the project. In an online survey, ADAPT asked for the farmers’ perception of climate change, their experiences concerning its impact on potato production, and their need for adapted potato varieties.

The survey was available in ten languages (English, German, Dutch, French, Polish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Serbian and Greek) and accessible from December 2020 to April 2021. In total, the survey’s responsible ADAPT partner, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), received 553 replies, of which most were from farmers with potato production locations in Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Belgium, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. ADAPT would like to thank all farmers for participating and all Europatat members for distributing the survey!

Learning from the replies

Remarkably, almost 90% of the survey respondents indicated that changes in climatic conditions had affected their potato production in the last 10 years. Moreover, almost 50% defined climatic changes as a threat to maintain potato production at their farms!

More than 80% of the potato growers indicated that drought and heat have increasingly affected their potato production in the last 10 years. In the opinion of more than 50% of the farmers, pests and pathogens induced by climatic conditions have had negative effects. More than 40% noted the impact of heavy precipitation. Similar replies were obtained when asking for potential future impairment of potato production.

In conclusion, the survey shows that the focus and the expected outcome of the ADAPT project perfectly meet the needs of potato growers!

• The Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Vienna coordinates a consortium of 17 European leading academic research institutions, potato breeders, a non-profit EU associa­tion, a government agency and a screening technology developer.
• The ADAPT project aims at identifying new breeding targets and matching potato varieties to specific challenging environmental growth conditions of the future.
• The project has received a €5 million grant from the Horizon 2020 EU Program.

 

Vienna, 31 August 2020 - The ADAPT consortium has successfully launched the project “Accelerated Development of multiple-stress tolerAnt PoTato”, which aims at developing new strategies to make potatoes fit for the challenging growth conditions of the future. The ADAPT project will take place over the next four years with a total budget of 5 million Euro from the EU Horizon 2020 program (No GA 2020 862-858).

Potato is one of the most important food crops worldwide. However, a major threat to tuber yield security for this staple food crop is its vulnerability to environmental stresses; particularly to combinations of heat and drought, which are becoming increasingly prevalent due to climate change. Often these conditions are also followed by seasonal flooding, which can ruin the entire harvest within a few days. While there is some knowledge of responses to multiple stresses from model plant species such as Arabidopsis, similar knowledge in potato is lacking. In the ADAPT project, the complementary expertise of ten leading academic research institutions, four potato breeders, a screening technology developer, a government agency and a non-profit EU association will come together to investigate the mechanisms underlying multi-stress resilience in potato.

 

The ADAPT project is led by Dr. Markus Teige from the Faculty of Life Sciences of the
University of Vienna, who explains that the potato comes from areas with a cool climate and
is therefore particularly sensitive to heat. Moreover, as the tubers are growing in the soil, they are also extremely sensitive to flooding stress, which also increase their vulnerability to
disease. “With this project we will determine the molecular and phenotypical responses to
different stress conditions, which are becoming increasingly important for potato yield under the challenging growth conditions due to climate change. Together with the breeders we will identify traits and genes that can enhance stress resilience in this very important food crop”, Dr. Teige adds.

The project’s researchers will combine molecular biology, stress physiology, systems biology and analytics with engineering and molecular breeding and include end-user driven agencies for variety testing and potato trading to translate findings. “Arising from our mechanistic understanding we aim to identify new breeding targets and matching potato varieties to specific environmental conditions. Knowledge from our research will directly reach the most relevant stakeholders and end-users feeding into breeding programs and guiding technology development for improved crop management strategies”, Dr. Teige concludes. The ADAPT project kick-off meeting was held online in July 2020 bringing together representatives of the project partners and the European Commission.

Back to News