First island-wide, single-day soil collection study on Crete reveals environmental drivers of microbial diversity.

Understanding how environmental and ecological factors shape variability in soil-associated microbial communities is a complex problem, particularly on islands, which contain a wide range of diverse and unique geology, fauna, and flora. The island of Crete features sharp altitudinal gradients, diverse landscapes, and distinct ecological zones shaped by its complex geological history making it an ideal natural laboratory for studying how environmental variation influences soil microbial communities. In this study, we characterized the soil microbial communities across Crete's ecozones and identify environmental factors associated with their diversity and composition.

Do agricultural grasses bred for improved root systems provide resilience to machinery-derived soil compaction?

The increasing frequency of droughts and floods on grasslands, due to climate change, increases the risk of soil compaction. Soil compaction affects both soil and forage productivity. Differing grasses may counteract some effects of compaction due to differences in their root architecture and ontogeny.

A route to decreasing N pollution from livestock: Use of hybrids improves efficiency of N flows in rumen simulation fermenters.

Ruminant agriculture suffers from inefficient capture of forage protein and consequential release of N pollutants to land. This is due to proteolysis in the rumen catalyzed by both microbial but initially endogenous plant proteases. Plant breeding-based solutions are sought to minimize these negative environmental impacts.

Root imaging showing comparisons in root distribution and ontogeny in novel populations and closely related perennial ryegrass varieties.

The incorporation of new sophisticated phenotyping technologies within a crop improvement program allows for a plant breeding strategy that can include selections for major root traits previously inaccessible due to the challenges in their phenotype assessment. High-throughput precision phenotyping technology is employed to evaluate root ontogeny and progressive changes to root architecture of both novel amphiploid and introgression lines of over four consecutive months of the growing season and these compared under the same time frame to that of closely related perennial ryegrass () varieties. Root imaging using conventional photography and assembled multiple merged images was used to compare frequencies in root number, their distribution within 0-20 and 20-40 cm depths within soil columns, and progressive changes over time.

An investigation of genotype-phenotype association in a festulolium forage grass population containing genome-spanning Festuca pratensis chromosome segments in a Lolium perenne background.

Alien chromosome introgression is used for the transfer of beneficial traits in plant breeding. For temperate forage grasses, much of the work in this context has focused on species within the ryegrasses (Lolium spp.) and the closely related fescues (Festuca spp.

Expression of FlHMA3, a P-ATPase from Festulolium loliaceum, correlates with response to cadmium stress.

Heavy metal ATPase 3 (HMA3), a P-ATPase, is a key tonoplast transporter involved in mediating the vacuolar sequestration of cadmium (Cd) to detoxify the intake of this element by plants. HMA3 expression in response to Cd stress has not been previously examined in the grass hybrid species Festulolium loliaceum (Huds.) P.

A new emphasis on root traits for perennial grass and legume varieties with environmental and ecological benefits.

Grasslands cover a significant proportion of the agricultural land within the UK and across the EU, providing a relatively cheap source of feed for ruminants and supporting the production of meat, wool and milk from grazing animals. Delivering efficient animal production from grassland systems has traditionally been the primary focus of grassland-based research. But there is increasing recognition of the ecological and environmental benefits of these grassland systems and the importance of the interaction between their component plants and a host of other biological organisms in the soil and in adjoining habitats.

Global agricultural intensification during climate change: a role for genomics.

Agriculture is now facing the 'perfect storm' of climate change, increasing costs of fertilizer and rising food demands from a larger and wealthier human population. These factors point to a global food deficit unless the efficiency and resilience of crop production is increased. The intensification of agriculture has focused on improving production under optimized conditions, with significant agronomic inputs.

Application of genomics-assisted breeding for generation of climate resilient crops: progress and prospects.

Climate change affects agricultural productivity worldwide. Increased prices of food commodities are the initial indication of drastic edible yield loss, which is expected to increase further due to global warming. This situation has compelled plant scientists to develop climate change-resilient crops, which can withstand broad-spectrum stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, flood, submergence and pests, thus helping to deliver increased productivity.

A novel grass hybrid to reduce flood generation in temperate regions.

We report on the evaluation of a novel grass hybrid that provides efficient forage production and could help mitigate flooding. Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is the grass species of choice for most farmers, but lacks resilience against extremes of climate. We hybridised L.