Scientific question

Maize is one of the world's most important sources of food, feed and fuel. However, in the context of climate change, we must increasingly adapt to unfavorable environmental conditions. To ensure the yield security of maize in the future, our goal is to understand mechanisms of stress tolerance of maize at the molecular and physiological level and to identify new approaches to improve stress tolerance through breeding.

Approach

We are investigating the response of genetically diverse maize lines at different developmental stages to abiotic stresses using transcriptomic, proteomic and phenotypic approaches. At the proteome level, we compare maize with other types of grains such as wheat and barley.

Expected results

The stress interaction networks created in the project will allow the identification of genes associated with stress tolerance. The use of native diversity will allow alleles to be selected for breeding adaptation of maize to future climatic conditions. We expect to gain insights into whether the relevant genes mediate universal or crop-specific stress response mechanisms.