Extreme and variable climate conditions are expected to become more frequent worldwide with projected climate change. European agriculture is facing the crucial challenge of adapting crop productivity to climate change and will need the development of crops with increased resilience to abiotic stress factors triggered by climate change. Crop yield stability is dependent on the response of key developmental and growth processes to stress conditions. Delayed or accelerated flowering time, alteration of root architecture and growth, and disruption of pod-shattering are common responses displayed by crops exposed to high temperature or drought conditions associated to climate change. SYBRACLIM will evaluate the impact of these environmental factors on developmental and physiological processes directly influencing the yield of oilseed rape, Europe’s premium oilseed crop. We will also shed light on the genetic and molecular bases of the tolerance of different rapeseed varieties to increasing temperature and drought stress. The SYBRACLIM consortium is multidisciplinary and includes both commercial breeding companies and leading research groups with high complementarities that cover the fields of genetics, genomics, physiology, breeding and agronomy in Brassica crops along with modeling of crop performance under climate change. Rapeseed is one of the world’s most important sources of high-quality vegetable oils for human nutrition and biofuels, and particularly in Europe is also a major contributor to vegetable protein diets for ruminant livestock. SYBRACLIM will implement a multidisciplinary and innovative approach to characterize the phenotypic changes related to flowering time, root development and pod shattering in response to increased temperature and drought, and to analyse the productivity (yield, oil and protein content) in rapeseed varieties. We will also use genomics-assisted selection of stress-tolerance traits in controlled environments and field trials. The relationship between performance and variability of the studied developmental processes will allow us to identify new genetic traits associated with adaptation and use them to design stress tolerant rapeseed crops by complementary plant breeding and biotechnology strategies. Finally, we will integrate all these environmental, phenotypic and productivity data in models that will assess the performance of rapeseed varieties across different climate conditions. These models will be applied to simulate expected performance of rapeseed traits under projected climate change scenarios. Because breeders need decades to develop new varieties, this approach will enable anticipatory breeding for early development of germplasm carrying the necessary genetic variation to cope with climatic changes. SYBRACLIM will provide tools to allow the farmers to design better strategies for adapting cropping systems to climate change, contributing to secure yield of Brassica crops in Europe.

Climate change (CC) will have serious and profound impacts on pests and diseases of agricultural crops in Europe and it is vital that new tools and management methods are developed to tackle the problems that will increasingly threaten EU food production as a result. •In this project, for the first time, comprehensive state-of-the-art genomic, metabolomic and modelling methods will be used to develop the necessary tools and management methods for tackling spider mites that are increasingly serious pests of many important crops throughout the EU. •This will not only be an outstanding contribution to spider mite management under climate change but crucially be an example, demonstrating how the best and most advanced modelling and molecular methods can be applied to the vast array of other important pests and diseases that will develop because of climate change. •Spider mite outbreaks and crop damage are strongly favoured by high temperatures and drought stress caused by (CC) (especially in combination) that will have serious impacts not only in southern Europe, but throughout the continent because of more extreme and variable weather events including heat waves and droughts. The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae (TSSM), is a highly polyphagous species which attacks many crops and is adapting to attack several important new crops including grape vines and corn. Tetranychus evansi (TE) is a recently arrived alien invasive pest that is spreading through Europe and attacks important solanacious crops including tomato and potato. •Phytoseiid predatory mites are the main natural predators that regulate spider mite populations and are introduced as biocontrol agents in crops. They are harmed by broad-spectrum insecticides and the increasing use of these to control other alien invasive pests, e.g. spotted wing Drosophila and brown marmorated stink bug, lead to more serious outbreaks of spider mites. •In this project, teams from 7 EU countries and Canada will model the tritrophic interactions between crops, populations of spider mite pests and their predators under CC. Crucially, this will be accompanied by determination and modelling of the reciprocal transcriptional and metabolomic changes in the crop and the pest and their interactions under CC. •This holistic study will be done on a model annual and a model perennial crop plant (tomato and strawberry) and with two contrasting spider mite species, TSSM and TE. In addition, we will search for elicitors and effectors of TSSM and TE that are capable of modulating plant defences. Using Systems biology approaches, we will link the performance of plants and mites with genome-wide changes in their responses. •This comprehensive knowledge will be an invaluable resource for new tools and methods for climate-smart pest control including markers for breeding resistant varieties, predicting pest outbreaks and biocontrol and metabolites with that can be used as biopesticides.