Projects & Collaborations

Current projects  from the new base at the University of Bonn 

Zn-biofortified rice for Madagascar (May 2023 to April 2025)

A project funded by the fiat panis foundation to support our breeding efforts to increase grain Zn concentrations in rice varieties suitable for low-input conditions of Madagascar. The project builds on activities conducted in a bilateral project between JIRCAS and FOFIFA. A previously identified donor for high grain Zn (DJ123) and other genebank accessions of the aus sub-species of rice (from Bangladesh) are used in crosses with local varieties and selection of breeding lines is conducted in farmer´s fields.

Elucidation of novel rhizosphere functions of plants to utilize unexploited soil phosphorus for environment-friendly agriculture (2021 - 2024)

Bilateral German - Japanese project on rhizosphere traits that enhance P acquisition of rice and wheat under combined P and water deficiency. Project partners ZALF (BoKu, Austria) and JIRCAS investigate root branching, root exudation, resource-allocation between root and shoot and rhizosheat formation in contrasting genotypes.

Past Projects from the Wissuwa group at JIRCAS 

Breakthrough in Nutrient Use Efficiency for Rice by Genetic Improvement and Fertility Sensing Techniques in Africa (until August 2022)

A bilateral SATREPS project with Madagascar counterparts funded by JST and JICA. Our role is to improve tolerance to P and S deficiency through rice breeding. In our advanced breeding activities we test Pup1 breeding lines in farmer's fields, while basic research targets the identification of novel loci for for P/S uptake and utilization efficiency from with a global rice association panel. This is followed up by the characterization and confirmation of candidate genes.

Mechanisms and genetics of iron toxicity tolerance in African rice (July 2018 - June 2022)

A project led by Prof. Guy Kirk from Cranfield University, UK, with AfricaRice and the Laboratoire de Radioisotope (LRI) in Madagascar being other partners. The project spans crop breeding/genetics and soil science in an attempt to understand how tolerance toe Fe toxicity in lowland rice can be improved,

Zinc Biofortification of Rice for Madagascar (2018-2021)

A project funded by HarvestPlus and lead by C. Grenier of CIRAD, France. With Malagasy partner FOFIFA we are testing Zn biofortified breeding lines from the program of C Grenier. Additionally the Wissuwa team is applying Genomic Selection to identify new high-Zn donors among the 3K  set of sequenced gene-bank accessions from IRRI.

Recently completed projects

Creating rice germplasm with enhanced P uptake and internal P utilization (until March 2018)

Funded by JSPS of Japan the project targets candidate gene validation for two genes at a PUE locus on chromosome 1. In parallel we combined breeding lines carrying this PUE locus with the Pup1 locus.

Enhancing the sustainable use of phosphorus (P) in rice systems through the development of varieties with reduced grain P concentrations

This is a ‘New Frontiers Research Project’ funded by GRiSP (Global Rice Science Partnership) for the period July 2012 – December 2015.

Enhancing Resource Acquisition from Roots Under Stress in Cereal Crops (completed in March 2015)

This project part of the ‘Strategic Japanese-EU Cooperative Program’ funded by JST in order to facilitate the collaboration between EU research consortia and invited Japanese members. The EU consortium I am associated with is ‘EURoot’ and within the collaborative project we target rice genes controlling root traits enhancing P uptake.

Rice germplasm for high grain Zn content and tolerance of Zn deficient soils (completed September 2016)

A project led by Guy Kirk at Cranfield University with IRRI, the Wissuwa lab and Dominik Weiss at Imperial as main partners. The aim is to understand the movement of Zn from soil to plant and further on to rice grain from a geochemistry, physiology and genetic point of view.

Main Collaborators

Dr. Kazuki Saito - Agronomist at AfricaRice and collaborator on devising low-input agronomic interventions to improve performance under low soil fertility. He also is heavily involved in phenotyping of mapping populations under P deficient conditions.

Prof. Guy JD Kirk - Cranfield University, UK. The collaboration with Guy Kirk centers around mathematical modelling of soil-plant interactions, particularly with regard to P and Zn uptake from deficient soils.

Dr. Johannes A Postma - Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany. Collaborations on modeling rice root growth and P uptake.

Dr. Maire Holz - ZALF, Germany. Maire has visited JIRCAS for several month to work on the in-site visualization of rhizosphere processes in upland rice (release of carbon and phoshatases from roots) and this collaboration is expanding into the analyses of root exudates and their effects on soil microbial population.

Dr. Dominik Weiss - Imperial College, London. Thanks to Dominik's expertise in isotope geochemistry of trace elements, we used variations in Zn isotope discrimination to derive hypotheses regarding genotypic differences in Zn uptake mechanisms.

Dr. Michael Frei - Giessen University. A plant physiologist and former PostDoc in my lab, Michael and I maintain close contact and collaborate on tolerance of plants to radical oxygen stress as induced by Zn deficiency and excess ozone.

Dr. Terry J Rose - Southern Cross University, Australia. Terry only recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in my lab and we continue to develop new ideas and projects on the physiology and agronomy of P efficiency.

Dr. Lalith Suriyagoda - University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Collaborator on various aspects of nutrient efficiency in rice.

Dr. Tovohery Rakotoson - LRI, Madagascar. Collaborator on strategies to address low soil fertility in Madagascar.

Prof. Susan McCouch - Cornell University. We collaborate on SNP genotyping and Genome Wide Association Mapping (GWAM) for P and Zn efficiency traits as part of her Rice Diversity project.

Dr. Nani Khadi Drame - Molecular breeder and collaborator on marker assisted introgression of Pup1 into important African varieties and partner in the development of new mapping populations utilizing popular African varieties as the recipient parent.

Dr. Elke VanDamme - Agronomist and collaborator in efforts to identify key traits enhancing nutrient efficiency.