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Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change risks

Adaptation to climate change requires in-depth understanding of climate change driven risks, including their determinants (hazards, exposure and vulnerabilities) and impacts to human, production and natural systems. Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change Risks (IRISCC) is a consortium of diverse and complementary leading research infrastructures (RIs) covering disciplines from natural sciences to social sciences, across different domains and sectors. IRISCC provides scientific and knowledge services to foster cutting-edge research and evidence-based policymaking to improve Europe's resilience to climate change. IRISCC ensures a “one-stop-shop” for various user communities on climate change risk related RI services by setting up a dedicated Catalogue of services and related access management system both for granting transnational (onsite and remote) and offering virtual access. The Catalogue of services will be built through three consecutive releases, each delivering increasingly integrated services to its user communities. The IRISCC service integration will include Service Design Labs employing co-design and transdisciplinary action, and Service Demonstrators benchmarking the integrated cross-RI services. In addition to services aimed towards the scientific community, IRISCC will offer knowledge services aimed towards policymakers and other stakeholders. This is done together with risk management platforms. The research enabled by IRISCC contributes to future reports on climate change effects (IPCC, IPBES) as well as policy- and decision-making to meet the targets of climate adaptation strategies. IRISCC contributes to training a new generation of scientists to efficiently use RI services and for data stewardship. Data from IRISCC will be open and made available in compliance with FAIR principles and linked to European initiatives such as EOSC. Strong links will be created between IRISCC and current and future efforts under Horizon Europe.

Internal Fortress: Regulating European Freedom of Movement within the Nation-State, 1950-1980

Against the prevailing view that freedom of movement lowered internal barriers to movement while raising walls against outsiders to create a ‘fortress Europe,’ this project investigates how the introduction of freedom of movement may have strengthened national political authority over European migration within the member states of the European Economic Community (EEC). InternalFortress suggests that as governments gradually lifted entry restrictions across the EEC, they also built out new internal administrative machinery to insert ‘Community migrants’ into key areas of social and economic life, placing migrants from outside the bloc at a disadvantage within local communities. The project explores this hypothesis in three key areas: social security, skill development, and union participation. The PI will lead a team of two PhD researchers and one postdoc to deploy a methodologically innovative multi-layered research program that analyses the interplay between national, European, and international institutions, as well as the private NGO networks that flowed between those formal frameworks. In contrast to previous histories of freedom of movement, which explain policy outcomes leading up to today’s regime of European citizenship, InternalFortress makes an important interpretive innovation by focusing squarely on the early process of transition from the 1950s to the 1970s. The project will investigate how the improvised nature of early integration created gaps and tensions that were consolidated in the 1970s as national and regional migration policies settled into more rigid patterns. InternalFortress suggests that policies behind the border matter as much as policies at the border for understanding the acrimonious debates around European migration that continue through the present.

International Platform on Obstetric Violence (IPOV): an innovative tool for a respectful maternity and 
childbirth care

Over-medicalisation and disrespect in maternity and childbirth care have been identified by international research as an urgent global public health topic (WHO 2014, Simonovic 2019, Council of Europe 2019). The IPOV-RESPECTFUL CARE project intends to bring attention to obstetric violence and respectful maternity and childbirth care by implementing a concrete tool—the International Platform on Obstetric Violence—to bridge academic research and public policy, training for health professionals, women’s perspectives and public engagement on the matter. The Platform will be an innovative, international, interdisciplinary, intersectoral and cross-cultural digital and interactive tool for producing, sharing and transferring knowledge, systematising and exchanging good practices, acquiring skills and planning gender -based innovative training packages on respectful maternity and childbirth care among health professionals, health training managers, decision makers, researchers, women and all of society. To achieve these goals, a network of 39 breakthrough experts, from 19 participating organisations and 9 countries (universities, research centres, civil organisations and health maternity care institutions) will be established.

Concept development for a research infrastructure to manage, integrate and sustain large medical cohort studies

The INTEGRATE-LMedC consortium will develop a new concept to guide and support decision-making for the next-generation research infrastructure (RI) to facilitate efficient utilization and harmonization of large medical cohorts (LMedC), and to accelerate scientific and medical breakthroughs in Europe and beyond. Achievement of the ambitious objectives will only be possible through the integration of 11 highly interdisciplinary partners including established ERIC / ESFRI infrastructures such BBMRI,  ECRIN, EIRENE and EBRAINS with unique expertise in conceptualizing and implementing European RIs. The partners will generate a gap analysis to identify what is missing of cohort data and samples, RI tools and services, quality measures, governance models, user needs and the barriers for efficient utilization of these cohorts and RI, including ethical and legal frameworks. To identify IT technologies and architecture for suitable data stewardship and long-term availability of European RIs, the partners will prepare for a feasibility study for federated data analysis of LMedC. The feasibility study will be based on two examples of use-cases: one stroke case using data from medical health registry data and one case using data from longitudinal population-based studies with different technical, legal, and ethical challenges. To ensure availability of data and samples related to existing and future LMedC studies and their re-use for secondary research, the partners will develop a concept outline including a governance plan and guiding principles for data access policies and data protection policy, whilst considering the FAIR principles and ELSI issues. An overarching RI concept to manage, integrate, and sustain LMedC studies will be developed, including an initial financial and operational plan for the implementation of the new RI outlining new services and access opportunities for the research community.

REGULAR AND UNPLANNED CARE ADAPTIVE DASHBOARD FOR CROSS–BORDER EMERGENCIES

During cross-border health emergencies, health and care services may be overwhelmed by high numbers of patients requiring unplanned care. Delays and backlogs in regular care, as a result of the stretched health care system, leave millions of patients with regular care needs unattended, resulting in disastrous healthcare outcomes. If poor healthcare outcomes across the population are to be avoided, healthcare systems must become more resilient and flexible and allow for rapid changes in the care delivery services. RAPIDE’s aim is to develop, validate and demonstrate a portfolio of powerful tools that enable healthcare systems to build in robustness of decisions, resilience of the health care professionals and patients and flexibility in the modalities of care delivery, thereby maintaining access to regular care during health emergencies. 

RAPIDE emphasises opportunities for optimising in-hospital care, but also for relocating care from hospitals to community and home environments without loss of care quality. Thus, the project focuses on two closely-linked challenges – 1: Identifying and predicting how much care, and which care, needs to be moved along the care chain; 2: Identifying and verifying effective, feasible and acceptable ways to make this reconfiguration of care a reality. This will be achieved by (a) resource modelling, which builds comprehensive foresight and forecasting solutions and links them to patient flows optimization, along the whole chain of care, (b) selecting and implementing the best available tools to deliver regular care in new ways. To ensure usability, acceptability and equitable real-world value, RAPIDE will be co-designed and co-validated with stakeholders, from patients, GPs, clinicians and hospital managers to health ministries, pandemic-management and public health agencies. A Table Top Exercise and extensive communication and dissemination will raise awareness of the project’s successes.

Transition to safe & sustainable food systems through new & innovative detection methods & digital solutions for plant-based products derived from new genomic techniques, under a co-creation approach

DARWIN aims to contribute to a fair, healthy, safe and environmentally friendly food system by co-developing an innovative detection strategy by integrating targeted analytical PCR-based methods, untargeted sequencing methods, and digital solutions. A new generation of innovative and reliable DNA-based analytical detection methods, ranging from enhanced PCR methods for NGT detection, identification and quantification in single and multi-target systems, to untargeted sequencing methods related to whole-genome sequencing, laser capture microdissection-based sequencing and high throughput metagenomics sequencing for NGT screening and characterization. DARWIN will bring a cutting-edge approach developing genetic fingerprints using artificial intelligence to overcome challenges related to event-specific targeted methods, unambiguously identifying specific NGT lines. DARWIN also brings innovation in the new application of digital solutions such as data spaces and documentation-based screening to increase the data evidence to NGTs; blockchains to enable transparent and traceable detection along the food chain; AI models; and a Decision Support System to improve accuracy and support the selection of the best fit for purpose detection methods. DARWIN will reach TRL4-5 though validation including in-house, transferability and full trials, and presenting 3 cases representative of real situations relevant for NGT products in the EU agri-food market. After methods validation and the definition of a clear oriented detection strategy, DARWIN will theoretically extrapolate its finding to more complex scenarios encountering the diversity of NGT lines and food products that might reach EU markets. All this, under an interdisciplinary co-creation ecosystem based on Responsible Research and innovation (RRI) principals, empowering a wide variety of stakeholders - including consumers - in Europe and internationally; and robustly contributing to the policy making.

Interoperable applications suite to enhance European identity and document Security and fraud detection

Combatting frauds on identity and travel documents is a key mission of law enforcement agencies and border guards. Industries have been working on new means to combat frauds on identity, and public authorities are using numerous technologies to accomplish their mission, but permanent innovation is required to fight highly skilled defrauders. A number of European innovation projects have tested new ways to combat fraud but few of them reached an operational level.
EINSTEIN objectives is to enhance significantly existing public authorities’ means through innovation, building on technologies proven in the labs but not mature for an operational usage yet. EINSTEIN will deliver six applications essential to fight identity frauds: 1) online ID issuance using a secure cloud-based server for real-time biometric quality checks and fraud detection, 2) mobile document and identity checks using commercially available smartphones, 3) document authentication module to detect fraudulent documents, 4) pre-registration for land-border crossings including biometrics and DTC, 5) EES kiosk with advanced fraud detection using video surveillance, 6) fast track for enrolled travelers using on-the-move face and iris. To ensure TRL7 at a minimum, practitioners will run six different pilot use cases in their own environment. A key objective is also to ensure interoperability and flexibility of all the components developed in the project so that they can be reused in different contexts, possibly by different providers. Design of open, well-defined, standardized interfaces will allow achieving this objective.
Privacy being an essential concern of all European citizens and governments, EINSTEIN will take into account privacy-by-design principles, developing flexible components to ease their customization in order to meet not only the European legislation on data protection but also national legislations on this matter, which vary significantly from one country to the other.


Waste in humanitarian Operations: Reduction and Minimisation

Waste in humanitarian Operations: Reduction and Minimisation (WORM)'s overall objective is designing guidelines and support actions for circular economy in the humanitarian sector. WORM focuses on two selected settings: field hospital deployments, and humanitarian livelihood programmes with a waste picking component. Across these settings, the project focuses on several cross-cutting focus areas: 
•	the integration of bio-based technological innovation solutions in the humanitarian context, 
•	using procurement as a gatekeeper for waste avoidance, and gateway to integrate innovative solutions, 
•	improvements in waste management, and the use of less polluting waste treatment methods, 
•	a specific focus on the sustainable livelihoods of waste pickers, and 
•	policy development, advocacy and a heightened local awareness of improved waste management in the relevant local contexts.
Following a multi-actor approach, WORM brings together medical humanitarian organisations and humanitarian organisations with livelihood programmes with innovation and supplier clusters, procurement service providers, logistics service providers, waste management service providers and academic partners. WORM seeks to involve a myriad of different stakeholders in data collection and policy development, including but not limited to, humanitarian actors positioned in the field during an operation, local waste management companies, start-ups focusing on bio-based solutions, policymakers (both local and global), and research institutions. WORM includes partners from low- and middle-income countries (esp. Kenya, Viet Nam) since humanitarian operations are often implemented in these contexts. WORM will focus on these contexts in their local awareness campaigns for improved waste management.

Supporting Policy Regulations and Interventions to Negate aggravated Global diarrheal disease due to future climate Shocks

BACKGROUND: Global warming and climate extremes such as heavy precipitation, flooding, and drought are increasing risks for waterborne diarrheal disease. While these effects already burden low- and middle-income countries, where diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of childhood deaths, Europe has shared and underappreciated vulnerabilities. There is an urgent need to prepare and protect our water and communities from these threats.
AIM: To inform key climate, environmental, and health adaptation policies, in order to support and prepare citizens, communities and governments by better measuring the impact of future climate shocks on the burden of water-borne diarrheal diseases.
APPROACH: We bring together scientists from climate, environment, health, and social sciences to collaborate with communities, industry, public authorities and policy makers across socioeconomic settings. We will model the future impact of global climate change, on local water quality and quantity, and diarrheal disease outcomes. In case studies in Ghana, Tanzania, Italy, and Romania, we will measure current interactions of climate, behaviour, and water quality on pathogen-specific diarrheal disease risks and the safety of water supply systems. We will engage individuals and communities to understand situated understandings and practices to improve risk communication and ownership. With policy makers, we will design appraisal structures to assess the economic impact and value of planetary health interventions to prevent climate-related diarrheal disease.
IMPACT: SPRINGS will improve integrated climate and health surveillance, create climate-resilient water supply systems, engage citizens and stakeholders, and use evidence-based value assessments to prioritise interventions to prevent climate-induced diarrheal disease.  Long term adaptive capacity and climate-resilience will increase in Europe and beyond, preventing unnecessary illness and deaths from waterborne diarrheal disease.

COordination MEchanism for Cohorts and Trials

The overall goal of COMECT is to coordinate activities across Europe’s strategic adaptive platform trials (APTs) and cohort studies (CS) on infectious diseases (IDs) with epidemic or pandemic potential, by overseeing and facilitating dialogue, sharing of good practices, promoting collaboration and coordination across studies and providing updated information on initiatives and innovation in ID clinical research.
COMECT will build on and strengthen existing networks and infrastructure. These include EU-funded coordination mechanisms and networks, namely the Trial Coordination Board (TCB), Joint Access Advisory Mechanism (JAAM), the Cohort Coordination Board (CCB), and the ECRAID Coordinating Comittee. COMECT will develop a visible, well-defined coordination mechanism to highlight Europe's capacity and competence as an attractive base for clinical research.

COMECT will deliver:
1) an expanded, combined  European coordination mechanism that will work on harmonizing research initiatives, exchange of good practices, and stakeholder engagement across ID clinical studies in outbreaks and during inter-epidemic phases.
2) a strengthened JAAM to support coordination through independent scientific assessment of compounds/vaccines and recommendations for APTs to evaluate the new compound in new or adapted platform trials.
3) the mapping of stakeholders and their respective activities relevant to APTs and CS
4) a harmonised approach cross-study identification, assessment, and reuse of participant-level data from European APTs and CS
5) coherent communications and stakeholder engagement across all activities
6) a sustainability plan for the continuation of activities beyond the funding period.

COMECT will quickly adapt coordination efforts to a changing research landscape and to new ID threats. COMECT will operate in close collaboration with other emergency preparedness mechanisms, such as HERA, EMA, GLOPiD-R and the European Pandemic Preparedness Partnership.

Midlene fra IS-STP-Statsstipendprogram, utlendinger fordelt på år

Midlene fra IS-STP-Statsstipendprogram, utlendinger fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra IS-STP-Statsstipendprogram, utlendinger fordelt på fagområde

Zizalova, Paula Tsjekkia 08/09  kulturavtalestipend

Klimaforholdene under frøutviklingen påvirker trærs klimatilpasningsegenskaper og dette skyldes et fenomen kalt epigenetisk hukommelse. Denne hukommelsen påvirker genaktiviteter og derved plantenes fenotype uten å endre kodene i arvestoffet (DNA). Ved hjelp av vevskulturteknologi kalt somatisk embryogenese som gir genetisk identiske frø, har vi påvist at granfrø utviklet under kjøligere sammenlignet med varmere forhold, har forskjeller i DNA-metylering (epigenetisk mekanisme som regulerer genaktivitet) i gener relatert til klimatilpasning samt ulikheter i genaktivitet. Granplanter fra slike frø danner vinterknopper og får knoppsprett om våren på forskjellig tid i tråd med betydelige forskjeller i genaktivitet. Siden DNA-metylering er vist å variere gjennom året, er det imidlertid uklart hvilke epigenetiske endringer som er stabile nok til å forklare den epigenetiske hukommelsen. I EpiMemo-prosjektet vil vi kartlegge når under frøutviklingen slike forskjeller i DNA-metylering oppstår og hvilke forskjeller som er stabile gjennom året og fra år til år i planter som har vokst opp fra slike frø. DNA-metyleringsmønsteret vil sammenholdes med aktivitetene til gener som koder for proteiner (via budbringer-RNA = mRNA) og gener som koder for små RNA-molekyler (sRNA) som regulerer mengden av mRNA tilgjengelig for proteinsyntese. Siden DNA-metylering må undersøkes i tusenvis av gener i mange prøver og sammenholdes med genaktiviteter, vil vi benytte mønstergjenkjennelsesmetodikk basert på maskinlæring. For å bekrefte at forskjeller i DNA-metylering gir forskjellige klimatilpasningsegenskaper, tar vi sikte på å redigere DNA-metyleringen i spesifikke gener og studere effektene av dette i granfrø og planter. Økt forståelse av den epigenetiske hukommelsen av temperaturen under frøutviklingen vil bedre våre kunnskaper om epigenetikk som en drivkraft i klimatilpasning og evolusjon hos planter med langt liv, i tillegg til langsommere, naturlig seleksjon basert på klassisk genetikk.

Epigenetic memory may be induced by environmental conditions experienced during embryogenesis. How such a memory affects an organism’s ability to survive and adapt is a topic of great interest. Questions of intense debate are which life stages that are the most sensitive, how altered epigenetic marks are maintained mitotically through a long life and how they alter the phenotype. In EpiMemo we will probe these questions using the long-lived tree species Norway spruce as our experimental system. We will use a unique set of clonal epitype trees with a stable epigenetic memory of the climatic conditions (cold/warm) during embryogenesis and corresponding epitype embryos. To elucidate if the epigenetic memory is associated with differential DNA methylation between epitypes, we will look for stable DNA methylation differences in stem cells of the apical meristems of shoot tips/buds in epitype trees through the annual cycle and in mature embryos. A machine learning pattern recognition approach will be used to distinguish stable DNA methylation differences between epitypes from dynamic changes through the annual cycle. In addition, we will examine mRNA and sRNA gene expression differences (DEG) between epitypes to establish if changes in DNA methylation marks are associated with the observed DEG. We will also study how and when during embryogenesis the epigenetic memory is laid down, by analysing the DNA methylation, mRNA and sRNA expression during different stages of embryogenesis. To verify that DNA methylation differences are causing the phenotypic differences between epitypes we will use targeted editing of DNA methylation of identified target genes by means of transcriptional gene silencing (TGS). Understanding the evolutionary significance of epigenetic memory in climatic adaptation will reveal how perennial plants may epigenetically adjust their annual cycle to local climate changes more rapidly than classical natural selection can cope with.

How is epigenetic memory induced in embryos and maintained year after year in long-lived plants?

For at trær skal overleve vinteren må vekst-hvile-syklus synkroniseres med klimaforholdene. I gran er det vist at denne klimatilpasningen er påvirket av temperaturen under frøutviklingen. Ved studier av genetisk identiske frø (dvs. embryo=kimplanta i frøet) dannet hjelp av vevskulturteknikk, er det vist at disse forskjellene i klimatilpasningsegenskaper må skyldes en epigenetisk hukommelsesmekanisme som etableres under frøutviklingen (=embryogenesen).

Prosjektet tar sikte på å forstå denne epigenetiske hukommelsen og hvilke gener som påvirkes. Fra tidligere arbeid vet vi at knoppsettingen om høsten skjer på forskjellig tid hos granplanter fra genetisk identiske embryo som ble utviklet under ulike temperaturer. I dette prosjektet har vi vist at også tidspunktene for avherding (redusert frosttoleranse) og knoppsprett om våren er forskjellig i slike planter. Planter fra kaldt embryoklima avherdes og har knoppsprett tidligere enn de fra varmt embryoklima. I studier av embryo utviklet under ulike temperaturer, har vi påvist at en rekke gener forbundet med epigenetisk regulering har ulik aktivitet. Forskjellige temperaturer under embryoutviklingen fører også til forskjeller i mengde av en rekke små RNA-molekyler. Dette er i tråd med at virking av mikro-RNA-molekyler er en viktig epigenetisk mekanisme som regulerer mengden av bestemte mRNA-molekyler (mellomtrinnet mellom DNA og protein) og derved også mengden av protein. I tillegg har bestemte gener som er involvert i respons på temperatur og stress, også ulik aktivitet avhengig av temperaturen under embryoutviklingen. I planter som har spirt fra embryo utviklet ved kaldere og varmere klima, har vi også påvist omfattende forskjeller i genaktivitet på senvinteren/våren. Spesielt gjelder dette gener som koder for ulike transkripsjonsfaktorer (proteiner som styrer aktiviteten til andre gener), gener involvert i proteinsyntesen, cellesyklus-kontroll, hormonmetabolisme, stress-responser, regulering av vekst og utvikling samt dehydringener involvert i frosttoleranse. Vi har også påvist betydelige forskjeller i genaktivitet mellom ulike deler av vekstpunktet i skuddspissen. Spesielt i stamcellene for alle andre celler har vi observert forskjeller mellom planter fra kaldt og varmt embryoutviklingsklima i aktivitet av gener som koder for transkripsjonsfaktorer.

Vi har også funnet betydelige forskjeller i DNA-metyleringsmønsteret i gener som har ulik aktivitet i embryo fra kaldt og varmt klima og planter spirt fra disse. Generelt ble størst grad av DNA-metylering observert ved varm embryoutviklingstemperatur. På samme måte som at genaktivitets-mønstrene var forskjellige for ulike celle/vevstyper i vekstpunktene var det også celle/vevs-forskjeller i DNA-metylering. Høyere nivåer av DNA-metylering ved varm embryoutviklingstemperatur er i tråd med den senere avherdingen og knoppbrytningen om våren i plantene som stammer fra varmt embryoutviklingsklima sammenlignet med kaldt. 

Prosjektet har bidratt til betydelig bedret forståelse av hvordan temperaturen under frøutviklingen senere påvirker plantenes klimatilpasningsegenskaper. Temperaturen under embryoutviklingen påvirker altså det epigenetiske maskineriet og derved gener som styrer tidspunktene for knoppsprett og avherding (klimatilpasningsegenskaper). Forskjeller i DNA-metylering og mikro-RNA-mengder på grunn av kaldt og varmt embryoutviklingsklima er viktige epigenetiske mekanismer involvert i dette.

Trees are ecologically and economically extremely important, and climatic adaptation affecting their phenology (seasonal life cycle events) is crucial for their survival. It is still an open question to which extent climate change will compromise the mechanisms of the climatic adaptation in long-lived organisms with long generation intervals, such as trees. Surprisingly, traits such as the critical daylength for bud formation in the autumn and timing of bud burst in the spring, which are believed to have high heritability and to be under strong selection, were demonstrated to be greatly and persistently influenced by temperature during seed development in the conifer Norway spruce. The evidences strongly support that this is due to an epigenetic memory effect, but how it is initiated and maintained is unknown. There is also family variation in the ability to express the memory effect, indicating that there is genetic variation in the epigenetic machinery itself. In this project we aim to explore the basis of this epigenetic mechanism and to investigate the background of the variation between different families of Norway spruce in expressing the memory. Besides the obvious economic and ecological implications of epigenetically altered seed material, understanding overwintering mechanisms of trees has wide implications and will help to evaluate their abilities to adjust their growth-dormancy cycle to climatic conditions changing more rapidly than classical selection may keep up with. Understanding the epigenetic memory mechanism might also help to explain how clinal variation (continuous gradient) in daylength requirement for growth and bud formation in tree species, is established in nature.

Dissection of an epigenetic memory mechanism modulating adaptive phenological traits in trees

Forests are ecologically and economically important. An understanding of climatic adaptation of trees is crucial, especially in a scenario of rapid climatic warming. We propose to study the molecular regulation of climatic adaptation in Norway spruce, whi ch includes a novel epigenetic memory mechanism explaining as much as 65 % of the adaptive ecotypic variation in Norway. Zygotic as well as somatic embryos memorize the temperature and photoperiod prevailing whilst being formed in the seeds and also in vi tro. The resulting plants adapt according to these environmental signals. Timing of dehardening and bud burst in the spring, as well as growth cessation, bud set and cold acclimation in the autumn occurs early if the embryo temperature is low, whilst late  if temperature is high. We intend to identify and characterise genes involved in this epigenetic memory, as well as in traits where the epigenetic memory is expressed in the plants. With the aid of using unique clonal and clearly defined family materials , expressing genetic variation in the epigenetic memory effect, we have identified and will continue to identify candidate genes and microRNAs and study the dynamic changes in transcriptional activity in common garden trials in field, greenhouses, and cli mate chambers. DNA methylation will be assessed in those genes that express their activity in close correlation to the genetic variation in the epigenetic memory. By the end of the project period we hope to have a set of genes and microRNAs available for  future scrutiny, where we hope to disclose how they interact with the epigenetic machinery.

Molecular dissection of a novel epigenetic memory mechanism in Norway spruce

To successfully transplant agricultural species in the spring, hardening prior to transplanting is of great significance. In particular, in situations with fluctuating temperatures common to early spring, low temperature treatment leading to increased col d tolerance prior to transplanting, might be critical for survival. It is well known that cold tolerance can be increased in many species by exposure to a period of low, non-freezing temperature. However, among others in some Brassica species, periods of continuous low temperature tend to promote bolting, thus reducing the quality of the transplants. Preliminary studies show that diurnal temperature drops of two hours appear to result in improved cold tolerance as compared to constant low temperature. It also appears that the cold tolerance is more persistent after temperature drop treatments than after exposure to constant low temperature. It would be worthwhile to further investigate the use of temperature drop as a tool to achieve cold tolerance withou t quality reduction. In greenhouse production, considerable attention has been paid to controlling plant elongation growth by means of diurnal temperature fluctuations. In several species, diurnal temperature drops lead to reduced elongation and thus more  compact, robust plants.
In this project, we aim to develop methods to improve the quality and frost tolerance of transplants of agriculturally important vegetables such as Brassica species. Specifically, we aim at studying the effects of temperature drop s as compared to constant low temperature on quality-related characteristics of vegetable transplants such as cold tolerance, compact growth and bolting. We also aim to increase our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the responses of plants to fluctua ting temperatures, as these mechanisms are largely unknown.

Improved quality and frost tolerance in transplants of vegetables

Summary The growth potential and survival of forest trees of the temperate zone is dependent on a close co-ordination of growth and dormancy with the temperature climate. The light climate plays an important role in regulating bud set before the winter, and tempe rature is known as an important determinant of dormancy release and bud break. There are indications that the temperature might also affect growth cessation, bud set and dormancy, but very little data on this is available. Such knowledge would be of prime  importance in understanding the evolution of climatic adaptation in forest trees and possibilities of trees to adapt to rapidly changing climatic conditions. The phytochrome pigment system appears to be the main daylength sensor. Recent data suggest that the phytochrome action might also be affected by temperature, but the nature of this interaction is unknown. The ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 protein (ABI3) has recently also been suggested to be involved in short day induced contr ol of bud set, but nothing is known about the effects of temperature-light climate interactions on its expression and action. In this project we aim at identifying molecular mechanisms involved in the climatic adaptation in forest trees by studying the effect of interactions between temperature and light climate. Specifically we aim at studying the effects on the phytochrome sys tem and its action, as well as effects on ABI3. Given their apparent roles in short day induced bud set and dormancy and suggestions that temperature might affect the phytochrome system and its action, these factors might provide a key to an improved unde rstanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation of the annual cycles of growth and dormancy.

IS-STP-Statsstipendprogram, utlendinger

Zizalova, Paula Tsjekkia 08/09 kulturavtalestipend

Tildelt: kr 70 000

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IS-STP-Statsstipendprogram, utlendinger

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