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Draye X.GENETICS, GENOMICS AND MODELING OF CROP ROOTS MORPHOLOGY GROUP LEADER
RESEARCH OVERVIEW Plant roots play crucial roles in crop performance. They affect major biological functions like water and nutrient uptake, anchorage and carbohydrate storage, and failure to fulfill these functions leads to significant yield losses throughout the world. Our focus is on root architecture and soil-plant interactions. Plant and soil form an extremely complex system. The soil is one of the most heterogeneous substrate one can imagine. To achieve their life cycle in such an unpredictable substrate, plants have evolved intricated mechanisms enabling roots to adjust their growth to localized, sub-centimetric conditions, and to improve nutrient availability through enhanced chemical activity in the rhizosphere. The concept of soil-plant interactions is therefore at the core of root research. Intimately connected is the concept of root architecture, which describes which/when roots meet particular (favourable or detrimental) soil conditions. The goal of our research is to contribute to a great challenge of modern agriculture, viz. the manipulation of crop plant morphology (roots in particular) to sustain agronomic performance in harsh or suboptimal environments, using genetics and breeding. Our activities follow the following three specific objectives:
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26/02/2008
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