Soil-borne plant-parasitic nematodes are a biosecurity risk for global food production with an estimated annual loss of €110 billion worldwide. Root-knot nematodes (RKN) and potato cyst nematodes (PCN) rank 1 and 2 in the Top 10 of high-impact plant-parasitic nematodes with RKN alone accounting for ~5% of global crop losses. RKN and PCN are A2 quarantine pests or emerging species listed on the EPPO Alert List. The two PCN species are also included in EU Commission implementing regulation 2021/2285. Recent reports document the emergence of new RKN and PCN problems in tomato and potato cropping across Europe and beyond due to two independent drivers: global warming and genetic selection. For decades, non-specific, environmentally harmful agrochemicals have been applied to manage RKN and PCN. The increasing awareness about their negative impact prompted the phasing out of most nematicides. Consequently, there is an urgent need for novel, durable control strategies that enable adequate responses by stakeholders to prevent crop losses in the EU and beyond. NEM-EMERGE will provide a spectrum of sustainable, science-based solutions for both the conventional and organic farming sector based on the principles of IPM, including (1) optimized crop rotations schemes including cover crops, (2) tailored host plant resistances, and (3) optimal use of the native antagonistic potential of soils. Moreover, monitoring and risk assessment tools will be generated to support Plant Health Authorities in decision and policy making. To ensure the adoption and implementation of NEM-EMERGE toolsin the sector, a bottom-up co-creation process and multi-actor approach will be used based on stakeholder demands from both the conventional and organic sector. This makes NEM-EMERGE a key driver for the transition to sustainable farming in line with the Farm to Fork Strategy thereby contributing to the challenging targets set by the Green Deal.

Photosynthesis sustains life on earth, underpinning global agriculture and food security. Photosynthetic energy production is a process heavily environmentally regulated, that needs to adapt to constantly fluctuating conditions. Our rising population, have made strategies to boosting agricultural productivity a top research priority. These include improvements in photosynthesis under conditions that limit photosynthetic capacity, such as dense vegetation environments common in modern intensive agriculture. Among the environmental factors that modulate photosynthesis and tune it with plant growth, light plays an essential role. Light acts not only as energy to drive photosynthesis, but as an important informational cue to ensure proper adaptive responses. The plant photoreceptors in charge of Red (R) and Far-Red (FR) light sensing, called phytochromes, convert the information from external light cues into biological signals for the synchronization of plant development and photosynthesis. In part they do so by transcriptionally modulating gene expression form the nucleus, including multiple nuclear-encoded genes that have a functional role in the chloroplasts and in photosynthesis. Yet, photosynthesis is a tale of two genomes, being built on complexes of mixed genetic origin, encoded in the nuclear genome and in the chloroplastic genome (the plastome). The accurate sensing and interpretation of environmental signals is essential to assemble and adjust the photosynthetic multiprotein complexes to the environment. At present we have limited understanding of how the light signals participate in the cross talk between these two genomes for photosynthesis. What we know is that these two genomes have differential modulatory preferences. The nuclear genome is heavily modulated, including by the phytochromes, at the level of transcription. We recently revealed that these photoreceptors are also essential for the global expression of the plastome, a genome that has a strong regulation at the post-transcriptional level. The post-transcriptional control of the plastome encoded mRNAs, is likely linked to the origin of the organelle and is conducted by nuclear encoded, but chloroplast acting RNA-binding proteins. One of such classes of RNA-binding proteins are the chloroplastic RNA-binding proteins (CPRNPs), that are core components of the chloroplast RNA processing machinery with fundamental roles in multiple RNA-processing steps (stabilization, processing, editing, splicing). We have established that CPRNPs are phytochrome signaling components, essential for greening and important for the proper gene expression and of plastid genes including those involved in PSII activity. In addition, we discovered that CPRNPs are target of a novel mechanism of phytochrome-action, the light-selection of alternative promoter use (APU). This mechanism generates "CPRNPs isoforms" with dual, nuclear and chloroplastic localization. These results integrate with our gene expression studies that show that defects in CPRNPs, impact the plastid and the nuclear gene expression. Our current data suggest a novel and potentially central post transcriptional signalling pathway capable of coordinating environmental adjustments for the expression of genes necessary for photosynthesis and encoded in two different organelles. The characterization of this novel pathway in canopy environments may have significant implications in advancing our understanding of how plant cells achieve photosynthetic homeostasis. We envision impact of the research beyond plants, in particular in the areas of inter-organellar communication and coordinated reprogramming of organellar gene expression, with the opening of new research avenues in environmental sensing, genome coordination and the homeostasis of cellular energy production.

There is a need for a ground-breaking technology to boost crop yield (both grains and biomass) and its processing into materials of economic interests. Novel crops with enhanced photosynthesis and assimilation of green-house gasses, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone (O3), and tailored straw suitable for industrial manufacturing will be the foundation of this radical change. We are an alliance of European plant breeding companies, straw processing companies and academic plant scientists aiming to use the major advances in photosynthetic knowledge to improve barley yield and to exploit the variability of barley straw quality and composition. We will capitalize on very promising strategies to improve the photosynthetic properties and ozone assimilation of barley: i) tuning leaf chlorophyll content and modifying canopy architecture; ii) increasing the kinetics of photosynthetic responses to changes in irradiance; iii), introducing photorespiration bypasses; iv) modulating stomatal opening, thus increasing the rate of CO2 fixation and O3 assimilation. Beside the higher yield, the resulting barley straw will be tailored to: i) increase straw protein content to make it suitable as an alternative feed production source; ii) control cellulose/lignin contents and lignin properties to develop construction panels and straw reinforced polymer composites. To do so, we aim to exploit barley natural- and induced-genetic variability as well as gene editing and transgenic engineering. Based on precedent, we expect that improving our targeted traits will result in increases in above ground total biomass production by 15-20% without modification of the harvest index, and there will be added benefits in sustainability via better resource-use efficiency of water and nitrogen. A public dialogue will be established to ensure stakeholder engagement and explore the acceptability of a range of technologies as potential routes to crop improvement and climate change mitigation.

BEYOND will train the next generation of water professionals who will deliver scientific and technological innovation across disciplines, institutions and countries needed to solve European water quality problems in an era of global change. In the last decade, some improvement in understanding of water pollution has been achieved but there are still significant knowledge gaps, especially in the context of climate change and emerging contaminants, coupled with a lack of systems approach and operational tools required by water management. To address water quality pressures, we need to better target heterogeneity in the land-water continuum, accounting for recipient-specific sensitivity to pollution pressures and the spatial and temporal variation in sources, pathways, and impacts on stream ecology and ecosystem services, now and under future climatic conditions. BEYOND will equip Researchers with critical technical and communication skills needed to provide evidence-based management of landscapes and river networks under current and future conditions. They will gain expertise in interdisciplinary catchment science, novel high-resolution water quality sensors and models, gain access to cutting-edge water quality instrumentation in experimental catchments in Europe and through secondments to SMEs, and skills in citizen science. BEYOND Researchers will become leaders in innovation and knowledge exchange needed to achieve water quality improvements, through effective interactions with public and private stakeholders during secondments and short visits.

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