Frontiers | Heritable Variation in Pea for Resistance Against a Root Rot Complex and Its Characterization by Amplicon Sequencing

Soil-borne pathogens cause severe root rot of pea (Pisum sativum L.) and are a major constraint to pea cultivation worldwide. Resistance against individual p...

Autoactive CNGC15 enhances root endosymbiosis in legume and wheat - Nature

Nuclear calcium oscillations initiate plant–arbuscular mycorrhiza and nitrogen-fixing bacteria symbioses for nutrient acquisition, with a newly discovered autoactive CNGC15 mutant enhancing these partnerships, potentially improving crop nutrition and reducing inorganic fertilizer dependence.

Variety mixtures of winter wheat: a general status and national case study - Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection

Food and feed production worldwide heavily relies on wheat (Triticum aestivum). However, current agricultural practices face numerous challenges including a shortage of land for cultivation, a desire to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and the development of resistance towards employed pesticides and virulence towards host resistance in the most widely grown varieties. In this paper, we demonstrate based on the literature that cultivating wheat variety mixtures generally leads to increased yield and yield stability across years and environments, reduced severity of multiple diseases, and a decreased risk of lodging before harvest compared to the cultivation of pure stands. Moreover, mixtures may delay fungicide resistance development and increase genetic diversity, ultimately prolonging the durability of resistance genes. Furthermore, growing mixtures may lower the risk of crop failure due to more extreme weather events and lead to better utilization of water and nutrients. We discuss a Danish case study advocating the cropping of wheat varieties in mixtures as an example of how variety mixtures can be utilized in integrated pest management strategies. The study shows that if all involved stakeholder groups promote the adoption of variety mixtures, a major uptake by farmers can be reached, potentially reducing the dependency on pesticides in current cropping schemes.

Why is nutrient cycling in food systems so limited? A case study from the North-Netherlands region - Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

Identifying pathways to circular agriculture requires a profound understanding of nutrient flows and losses throughout the food system, and of interactions between biophysical conditions, land use, food production and food consumption. We quantified nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) flows of the food system of the North-Netherlands (NN) region and of its 30 subregions varying in biophysical and socio-economic conditions. The food system included agriculture, food processing, consumption, and waste processing. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) and the nutrient cycling counts were calculated. Results show a low NUE (25%) and PUE (59%) of the food system. External inputs were used to maintain high yields and production. Nutrient cycling was very limited with losses from agriculture ranging from 143 to 465 kg N ha−1 y−1 and 4 to 11 kg P ha−1 y−1. Food system losses ranged from 181 to 480 kg N ha−1 y−1 and from 7 to 31 kg P ha−1 y−1 and varied with biophysical conditions, population density and farming systems. Large losses were associated with livestock farming and farming on drained peat soils. Food system efficiency was strongly associated with the utilization of produce. We conclude that increasing circularity requires tailoring of agriculture to local biophysical conditions and food system redesign to facilitate nutrient recycling. Steps towards circularity in NN include: matching livestock production to feed supply from residual flows and lands unsuitable for food crops, diversifying crop production to better match local demand and increasing waste recovery.

Circular food system approaches can support current European protein intake levels while reducing land use and greenhouse gas emissions - Nature Food

Almost half of land use and nearly three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by adopting circularity principles and reducing the ratio of animal-sourced protein to plant-sourced protein from 60:40 to 40:60 in European diets.

Designing mixtures of varieties for multifunctional agriculture with the help of ecology. A review - Agronomy for Sustainable Development

The study of natural ecosystems and experiments using mixtures of plant species demonstrates that both species and genetic diversity generally promote ecosystem functioning. Therefore, mixing crop varieties is a promising alternative practice to transform modern high-input agriculture that is associated with a drastic reduction of within-field crop genetic diversity and is widely recognized as unsustainable. Here, we review the effects of mixtures of varieties on ecosystem functioning, and their underlying ecological mechanisms, as studied in ecology and agronomy, and outline how this knowledge can help designing more efficient mixtures. We recommend the development of two complementary strategies to optimize variety mixtures by fostering the ecological mechanisms leading to a positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and its stability through time, i.e., sampling and complementarity effects. (1) In the “trait-blind” approach, the design of high-performance mixtures is based on estimations of the mixing abilities of varieties. While this approach is operational because it does not require detailed trait knowledge, it relies on heavy experimental designs to evaluate mixing ability. (2) The trait-based approach is particularly efficient to design mixtures of varieties to provide particular baskets of services but requires building databases of traits for crop varieties and documenting the relations between traits and services. The performance of mixtures requires eventually to be evaluated in real economic, social, and agronomic contexts. We conclude that the need of a multifunctional low-input agriculture strongly increases the attractiveness of mixtures but that new breeding approaches are required to create varieties with higher mixing abilities, to foster complementarity and selection effects through an increase in the variance of relevant traits and to explore new combinations of trait values.

Crop genotype modulates root rot resistance-associated microbial community composition and abundance of key taxa - Environmental Microbiome

Background Plants are constantly challenged by pathogens, which can cause substantial yield losses. The aggressiveness of and damage by pathogens depends on the host-associated microbiome, which might be shaped by plant genetics to improve resistance. How different crop genotypes modulate their microbiota when challenged by a complex of pathogens is largely unknown. Here, we investigate if and how pea (Pisum sativum L.) genotypes shape their root microbiota upon challenge by soil-borne pathogens and how this relates to a genotype’s resistance. Building on the phenotyping efforts of 252 pea genotypes grown in naturally infested soil, we characterized root fungi and bacteria by ITS region and 16 S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, respectively. Results Pea genotype markedly affected both fungal and bacterial community composition, and these genotype-specific microbiota were associated with root rot resistance. For example, genotype resistance was correlated (R2 = 19%) with root fungal community composition. Further, several key microbes, showing a high relative abundance, heritability, connectedness with other microbes, and correlation with plant resistance, were identified. Conclusions Our findings highlight the importance of crop genotype-specific root microbiota under root rot stress and the potential of the plant to shape its associated microbiota as a second line of defense.

De potentie voor koolstofvastlegging in de Nederlandse landbouw

Hoe banken, bedrijven en politici gingen geloven dat ‘rege­neratief’ boeren het klimaat kan redden

De Duitse start-up Klim staat model voor een twijfelachtig geloof in klimaatvriendelijke, regeneratieve landbouw. Op de belofte dat boeren megatonnen CO₂ permanent uit de lucht kunnen verwijderen, haalde het bedrijf een miljoeneninvestering binnen. Tot de investeerders behoren onder meer de Rabobank en verzekeraar Achmea. Maar kunnen de beloftes ook worden waargemaakt?

Contrasting performances of modern and landrace cultivars in wheat mixtures and wheat-legume intercrops in organic and low input conditions - Euphytica

The context of global ecological crisis has led to the rediscovery and reuse of landrace crop cultivars. Many recent studies testify the high-quality value of landraces, as well as their agronomic interest in terms of adaptability to pedoclimatic environments. The aim of this study was to highlight the differences between modern varieties and landraces for their mixing and intercropping capabilities. An on-farm experiment, in low input conditions, took place in five different sites in Western France (3 repetitions per site) during three seasons (from seedling 2014 to harvest 2017). Three landraces and three modern varieties were compared in three mixing modalities: monoculture, cultivar mixture and legume intercropping. This on-farm experiment with no chemical input has offered new insights on the differences between modern varieties and landraces: (1) Landraces yielded around 2.8 t ha−1 while modern varieties yielded around 3.0 t ha−1, a difference that was not significant. (2) Landraces’ yields were more stable over sites. (3) Wheat straw dry matter yields were 1.5 t ha−1 higher for landraces than for the modern ones. (4) The grain nitrogen content for landraces was 13.5% while it is 12.3% for modern varieties. (5) Landraces were healthier than modern varieties; (6) Arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi wheat root colonisation was 5% higher in landraces (35.2%) than modern varieties (29.4%) in these conditions unfavourable to mycorrhiza due to ploughing. (7) Wheat lodging was 38.5% for landraces while it was around 1% for modern varieties. Intercropping wheat with legumes decreased wheat grain yield by around 25%, but increased wheat grain nitrogen content from 12.7 to 13.8%, independently between landraces and modern varieties. This study provides novel evidence of the interests of diversifying crops, either through intra-varietal genetic diversity (the use of landraces) and inter-specific diversity (intercropping of wheat and legumes), for both wheat performance and stability.

Harnessing historical genebank data to accelerate pea breeding - Theoretical and Applied Genetics

The German Federal Ex Situ Genebank for Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (IPK) harbours over 3000 pea plant genetic resources (PGRs), backed up by corresponding information across 16 key agronomic and economical traits. The unbalanced structure and inconsistent format of this historical data has precluded effective leverage of genebank accessions, despite the opportunities contained in its genetic diversity. Therefore, a three-step statistical approach founded in linear mixed models was implemented to enable a rigorous and targeted data curation. Spring accessions revealed considerable breeding potential, with protein content exceeding market standards by almost one-fifth and with hundred grain weight that could match the upper limits reported for European elite varieties. This variation is embedded within structured populations, comprising five convarieties including sugar snaps and field pea, adding value for breeding across diverse morphotypes and market segments. Winter accessions demonstrated cold resilience, with post-winter survival rate up to 79.27% under minimum temperatures as low as − 17.1 °C. This variation is of particular relevance given the limited availability of winter-hardy cultivars able to evade summer drought and heat stresses. Transformation of the IPK Genebank into a bio-digital resource redirects formerly static material into central leverage for plant breeding in view of contemporary challenges. As such, this investigation activated the IPK pea population for use in among others breeding for a wide variety of ideotypes, research into adaptation, and future combination with omics studies.

Cultivar mixtures increase crop yields and temporal yield stability globally. A meta-analysis - Agronomy for Sustainable Development

Cultivar mixtures have been proposed as a way to increase diversity and thereby improve plant production, but our understanding of the effects of mixing cultivars on crop diseases and resource-use efficiency remains fragmentary. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the effects of cultivar mixtures on crop yield, yield stability, resource-use efficiency, and disease severity compared with monocultures of twelve major crops. We found that, overall, mixing of cultivars increased crop yield by 3.82%. Yield gains from mixing cultivars were highest in rice (+16.1%), followed by maize (+8.5%), and were lowest in barley (+0.9%) and sorghum (no increase). Temporal yield stability increased with the number of cultivars in the mixtures. Overall, mixing cultivars increased crop biomass, leaf area index, photosynthetic rate, and Water-use efficiency by 5.1, 7.2, 8.5 and 4.3%, respectively, and decreased disease incidence by 24.1%. Cultivar mixtures were more effective in mitigating diseases and increasing yields in studies performed at lower latitudes, higher mean annual temperatures, and higher mean annual precipitation. Our study complements and adds to previous research, indicating that cultivar mixtures reduce crop losses to disease and enhance resource-use efficiency compared with monocultures globally. We conclude that the targeted use of cultivar mixtures with appropriate management practices can reduce resource and pesticide inputs while maintaining high yields, thereby promoting sustainable and productive agriculture. Graphical abstract

Frontiers | Modeling Illustrates That Genomic Selection Provides New Opportunities for Intercrop Breeding

Intercrop breeding programs using genomic selection can produce faster genetic gain than intercrop breeding programs using phenotypic selection. Intercroppin...

Frontiers | The statistical analysis of multi-environment data: modeling genotype-by-environment interaction and its genetic basis

Genotype by environment interaction (GEI) is an important phenomenon in plant breeding. This paper presents a series of models for describing, exploring, und...

Distinct soil microbial diversity under long-term organic and conventional farming

AbstractLow-input agricultural systems aim at reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in order to improve sustainable production and ecosy

Pseudomonas volatiles shape the root transcriptome and microbiome to promote plant growth under drought

### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Dutch Research Council (NWO/OCW), as part of the MiCRop Consortium Programme, Harnessing the second genome of plants