Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crops
From functional genomics to plant breeding and farmer's fields
AIMS
The aim of our research is to contribute to the development of new varieties with improved adaptation to stressful environments. We approach this goal through basic research on the genetic and physiological basis of stress adaptation. In collaboration with institutions in the developing world we subsequently transfer our research findings to crop breeding and other applied sciences.
FOCUS
At present we focus mainly on work with rice as this is the most important food crop worldwide. It is also the crop with the best genetic/genomic resources available and can therefore serve as a model crop for other cereals such as barley, wheat or sorghum. At present we focus on abiotic stresses that limit crop yields in many parts of the world, investigating genetic and physiological causes of:
tolerance to phosphorus (P) deficiency
tolerance to iron toxicity
enhanced root development under stress
tolerance to drought and salinity
In addition we collaborate with partners on developing rice with improved nutritional quality, namely with increased zinc (Zn) concentrations in the rice grain. A first Zn biofortified rice breeding line from our program has been released in 2024 as variety 'Mavitrika' in Madagascar where Zn malnutrition is a national concern.
With the move to the University of Bonn we started work on resource capture and root development in maize in collaboration with the group of Peng Yu.
Matthias Wissuwa
visiting Professor
PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence
&
Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES)
Department of Plant Nutrition
University of Bonn
Formerly:
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)
and
Adjunct Professor
Department of Global Agricultural Sciences
Tokyo University
APPROACH
We target natural genetic variation for abiotic stress tolerance within rice germplasm in order to identify novel tolerance alleles present within gene banks, association panels or QTL mapping populations. After mapping of loci associated with tolerance, candidate genes are identified and characterized and tolerance mechanisms are investigated physiologically. At various stages findings are confirmed by field experiments to assure results have practical relevance. A successful project would conclude with the development of molecular markers and their application in the marker assisted introgression of tolerance alleles into modern varieties with high yield potential but poor adaptation to target stresses.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS