The OPTIMUS PRIME proposal is divided into 5 Work Packages (WPs):
Work Package 1 Project Management
Objectives
O1.1 Coordinate the research activities to be carried within each WP
O1.2 Communicate with the funding bodies
O1.3 Elaborate mid-term and final reports
O1.4 Coordinate the communication activities
O1.5 Data management
O1.6 Organization of biannual consortium meetings
Work Package 2 Exploitation, dissemination, and impact assessment of the developed technology
Objectives
O2.1 Manage Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the developed technology, ensuring adequate transfer to the productive sector
O2.2 Organization of communication activities: consortium meetings, training days, seminars, secondments, workshops, demonstration days and conferences
O2.3 Design and implementation of an OPTIMUS PRIME dedicated website
O2.4 Report on impact of the development technology at economic, environmental, and social dimensions, to gather information on indicator 2.4.1.
Work Package 3 Evaluation of priming agents as a sustainable strategy to increase abiotic and biotic stress tolerance on tomato. Investigate the underlying physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms and optimization of treatments
Objectives
O3.1 Establish a reproducible and exchangeable tomato cultivation methodology to impose the stress treatments.
O3.2 Evaluation of the different priming agents (natural compounds and biological agents such as AM fungi and PGPB) as inducers of stress tolerance in tomato. Comparison of in planta vs. seed priming treatments as inducers of stress tolerance.
O3.3 Analysis of the underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in the enhancement of stress tolerance in tomato as a result of selected priming agent combinations.
Work Package 4 Assessment of the effectiveness of the priming strategies on tomato under field conditions
Objectives
O4.1 Evaluation of abiotic stress tolerance on primed vs. unprimed local adapted tomato varieties under different edaphoclimatic conditions and realistic field conditions using thermal and NDVI imaging techniques.
O4.2 Evaluation of the effects of seed priming on tomato reproductive traits, including fruit yield and quality in stressed vs. control plants.
O4.3 Assessment of the effects of seed priming on the soil microbial community by metagenomics approach.
Work Package 5 Design and evaluation of a methodology for the industrial production of biodegradable seed coatings encapsulating the priming agents. Market study on the economic potential of the developed prototype
Objectives
O5.1 Design of a working seed coating formulation based on biodegradable polymers to integrate natural compounds and biological priming agents.
O5.2 Assay coated seed production in an industrial environment
O5.3 Evaluate coated seed quality and capacity to induce stress tolerance following procedures described in WP3.
O5.4 Evaluate the economic feasibility of the developed industrial workflow to produce coated seeds carrying the priming agents.
O5.5 Elaborate a market study to analyze the potential of the developed technology to generate an added value in horticultural crop seed production.
