• The Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Vienna coordinates a consortium of 17 leading academic research institutes in Europe, potato breeders, an EU non-profit association, a government agency and developer of screening technologies.
• The ADAPT project seeks to define new breeding targets and the ability of potato varieties to survive in specific challenging future growth conditions.
• The project received a grant of 5 million euros from the EU Horizon 2020 program.
The ADAPT Consortium has launched the Accelerated Multi-Stress Potato Development Project, which aims to develop new strategies to adapt potatoes to challenging future growth conditions. The ADAPT project will be implemented over the next four years with a total budget of 5 million euros from the EU Horizon 2020 program (GA 2020 862-858).
Potatoes are one of the most important food crops in the world. However, a major obstacle to its spread is the vulnerability of potatoes to environmental stresses, especially to the combination of heat and drought, which are becoming more common due to climate change. These conditions are often followed by seasonal flooding, which can kill an entire crop in a matter of days.
The ADAPT project will bring together the expertise of ten leading research institutes, four potato breeders, a screening technology developer, a government agency and an EU non-profit association to study the mechanisms underlying potato multi-stress resistance.
The ADAPT project is led by Dr. Markus Teige (Representative of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Vienna), who explains that potatoes come from cool climates and are therefore particularly sensitive to heat. What's more, since tubers grow in soil, they are also extremely sensitive to flood stress, which increases their vulnerability to disease. “Through this project, we will identify molecular and phenotypic responses to various stress conditions that are becoming increasingly important for potato yields under challenging growing conditions due to climate change. Together with breeders, we will identify traits and genes that can increase stress tolerance in this very important food crop, ”adds Teige.
The project's researchers will combine molecular biology, stress physiology, systems biology and analytics with development and molecular breeding, and will also engage end-user-focused agencies to test varieties. “Based on our mechanistic understanding, we aim to define new breeding goals and match potato varieties to specific environmental conditions. The knowledge gained from our research will directly reach the most important stakeholders and end-users involved in breeding programs and guiding the development of technologies to improve crop management strategies, ”concludes Dr. Teige.
The kick-off meeting on the ADAPT project was held online in July 2020 with the participation of representatives of the project partners and the European Commission.
Visit the project's official website (Adapt.univie.ac.at) and Twitter account (@eu_Adapt) for more information and updates.
Coordinator
Markus Teige
Molecular Systems Biology
Faculty of Science
Althanstr. fourteen
A-1090 Vienna
AUSTRIA
T: +43-1-4277-52817
markus.teige@univie.ac.at