IMPRESA is the acronym for “IMProvingRESilience to Abiotic stresses in durum wheat: enhancing knowledge by genetic, physiological and "omics" approaches and increasing Mediterranean germplasm biodiversity by crop wild relatives-based introgressiomics”, the title of one of the selected projects among those participating to PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) – Call 2018, Thematic Area FARMING SYSTEMS

IMPRESA – Background,context, main goals

Numerous challenges to global food security (increasing environmental stresses, reduction of arable land and water resources) are increasingly affecting Mediterranean countries. For sustainable production to respond to such challenges, crops of strategic importance such as durum wheat, the "target" species of the IMPRESA project, require unconventional breeding strategies to be applied. As natural diversity of crops, including durum wheat, has been strongly reduced by the domestication process and breeding for maximum yield under optimal conditions, the overall objective of IMPRESA will be to widen the crop genetic basis, in order to provide untapped possibilities for breeding to develop genotypes better coping, in terms of yield performance and stability, with a variety of abiotic stresses. To this aim, a particular focus will be on wild wheat relatives as natural, valuable sources for identification and transfer of stress tolerance traits into cultivated durum wheat. At the same time, and ancillary to the former, a further, comprehensive objective will be to increase knowledge of physiological, metabolic and genetic mechanisms underlyingthe stress response in the plant materials under study, as a result of analyses carried out under controlled and natural (field trials), multi-environment conditions.

 IMPRESA participants

Coordinator:

ITALY (P0): University of Tuscia–Dept. of Agricultural and Forest Sciences (DAFNE), Viterbo;

PI: Prof. Carla CEOLONI

Partners:

- ITALY (P1): ENEA - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia, Rome;

PI: Dr. Debora GIORGI

- TUNISIA (P2): Center of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS);

PI: Prof. Faiçal  BRINI

- TURKEY (P3): University of Harran, Sanliurfa;

PI: Prof. Irfan  ÖZBERK

- ALGERIA (P4):UniversitéFerhat Abbas Sétif1, Sétif;

PI: Dr. Amar ROUABHI

- ALGERIA (P5): Centre de Recherche Scientifique et Technique sur les RégionsArides, Biskra;

PI: Dr.  Hanane MENASRIA

Project duration: 36 months (start September 2019)

For more information, see IMPRESA WEBSITE:    LInk