A drought-resilient crop for agriculture’s future

In a series of recent three studies, a team headed by CSIC researcher at CRANAI has made significant progress in understanding the molecular mechanism and improving the world’s fifth most cultivated grain growing, which is especially important in barren and semi -barren areas. The importance of this grain is in its role in the future of human and animal nutrition, which provides a sustainable alternative to areas facing dehydration.

Outside Africa, the maize is rapidly known as an important meal in many parts of the world, where it has been cultivated for centuries due to its many nutritional benefits and resistance to negative climate conditions. In Europe, maize cultivation is increasing and is being promoted as an alternative to crop circulation, especially in areas of water shortage.

The European Union is actively promoting maize cultivation as a flexible crop of climate, which has increased the overall maize production by 57 % over the past decade. France, in particular, is at the forefront of this trend that has 103,000 hectares dedicated to cultivating grain tide last year. Meanwhile, Spain is a major importer of maize in Europe, mainly for animal food but with the possibility of human food in the future.

In 2020, 158,000 tonnes were imported to Spain, so the increase in cultivation in the area could reduce dependence on imports. For reference, Spain imported 303,000 tonnes in the last six months, making it the third most imported crop.

Scientific Parts of Cragg

Kerg’s research efforts focus on pursuing the science science, even more, more than that, its handling in the laboratory for its adaptation and future growth process in stress conditions. For the past 20 years, the Research Group, led by Anna I. Kao Delgado, has been dedicated to studying this grain and has received numerous grants, including an ERCPOC from the European Research Council (ERC). In the last six months, this group has published three scientific articles of great importance for this sector.

I Ago Of these three studies, which has been published in Plant biotechnology The journal, the research team, pointed out that protein awarded the bacterial bruschinosteroid receptor, SBBRI1, changes to the SBBRI1, changing phenylopopanoid metabolism. This detection highlights a molecular method to increase drought resistance in the jurm, which is an important trait for climate -related agriculture.

A Second Work, appeared in Plant JournalIn detail about an important development in Sorigum biotechnology: an effective jurm change method using the turner vector system in conjunction with morphogenic regulators. The previous tools and methods were not effective enough to study some types of jurm, offering an important challenge for scientists and breeders. This new protocol solves this problem by allowing a very effective change by using agro -bacterium tomifsins and enables the application of new growth techniques such as gene modification to accelerate crop improvements.

This technology provides a useful tool for creating and studying the changes of interest with a lot of performance in the transformation of the resistant George (resistant to genetic changes), which reaches a double increase in change efficiency.

The main author of both studies, Juan B. Fontnet-Manznio, clarified the importance of these achievements in the cultivation of Jurim: “Our aim was to equip the Surgam community not only with modern molecular tools, which were also designed to accelerate the growth of Sargam, but also to develop some important drought.”

The third study, appeared in the journal A new phytologistThe root development features the role of SBRI1, especially in the meritim region, connects the BRI1 to the cell wall metabolism and shows that the pigs SBRI 1 actively plays a protein -protected role in the growth and development of protein. The growth of the plant is very important for the overall growth and health of the plant and plays a role in how the plant responds to environmental pressure.

The first author of this study, Andreas Rico Medina, highlighted the implemented technique: “We have adapted the stained and imaging protocols that are used in models such as Arabicoposis so that it can be useful for studies in jurm.”

He also noted, “This adaptation works to eliminate the difference between laboratory -based drought studies and more agricultural contexts, thus facilitating the practical application of these scientific progress.”

Socio -economic and political implications

The maize is rapidly considered to be an important crop to adapt to climate change due to high temperature and drought tolerance, especially compared to corn, which is the most cultivated grain in Europe and is highly sensitive to water pressure. Studies show that the importance of gender in Europe is expected to increase due to climate change.

Also, expansion of George cultivation in Spain can create new economic opportunities for farmers, reduce dependence on imports and increase local agricultural production. In Catalonia, more than 100,000 tonnes of maize was manufactured in 2023, of which more than 90 % of animals were destined for food.

In addition, the maize is naturally gluten -free grain, which is a particularly relevant feature in the food industry. Its adaptation and high nutritional cost makes it a key crop to improve food safety. With a nearly 6 % increase in demand in 2024, the increasing demand for human use highlights the ability to improve nutrition, especially when research leads to new types of geometry.

“This research represents an important opportunity for the establishment of technology transfer projects for CRAG, encouraging public private support, and highlighting the excellent work of its researchers,” said Anna I. Kao-Delgado, the leader of the group, Anna I. Kao-Delgado.

These three scientific progress by CRAG researchers not only pave the way for more sustainable and productive maize cultivation, but also leads to an important step forward to tackle global food security and nutritional challenges. In addition, this search is also relevant for other essential crops such as corn, wheat and rice, as they also contain bruschinosteroid signaling routes. This creates an opportunity for climate smart agriculture, which has more flexible and sustainable varieties.