Intensify production, transform biomass to energy and novel goods and protect soils in Europe-A vision how to mobilize marginal lands

The rapid increase of the world population constantly demands more food production from agricultural soils. This causes conflicts, since at the same time strong interest arises on novel bio-based products from agriculture, and new perspectives for rural landscapes with their valuable ecosystem services. Agriculture is in transition to fulfill these demands. In many countries, conventional farming, influenced by post-war food requirements, has largely been transformed into integrated and sustainable farming. However, since it is estimated that agricultural production systems will have to produce food for a global population that might amount to 9.1 billion by 2050 and over 10 billion by the end of the century, we will require an even smarter use of the available land, including fallow and derelict sites. One of the biggest challenges is to reverse non-sustainable management and land degradation. Innovative technologies and principles have to be applied to characterize marginal lands, explore options for remediation and re-establish productivity. With view to the heterogeneity of agricultural lands, it is more than logical to apply specific crop management and production practices according to soil conditions. Cross-fertilizing with conservation agriculture, such a novel approach will provide (1) increased resource use efficiency by producing more with less (ensuring food security), (2) improved product quality, (3) ameliorated nutritional status in food and feed products, (4) increased sustainability, (5) product traceability and (6) minimized negative environmental impacts notably on biodiversity and ecological functions. A sustainable strategy for future agriculture should concentrate on production of food and fodder, before utilizing bulk fractions for emerging bio-based products and convert residual stage products to compost, biochar and bioenergy. The present position paper discusses recent developments to indicate how to unlock the potentials of marginal land.

Comparative genomics and expression levels of hydrophobins from eight mycorrhizal genomes

Hydrophobins are small secreted proteins that are present as several gene copies in most fungal genomes. Their properties are now well understood: they are amphiphilic and assemble at hydrophilic/hydrophobic interfaces. However, their physiological functions remain largely unexplored, especially within mycorrhizal fungi. In this study, we identified hydrophobin genes and analysed their distribution in eight mycorrhizal genomes. We then measured their expression levels in three different biological conditions (mycorrhizal tissue vs. free-living mycelium, organic vs. mineral growth medium and aerial vs. submerged growth). Results confirmed that the size of the hydrophobin repertoire increased in the terminal orders of the fungal evolutionary tree. Reconciliation analysis predicted that in 41% of the cases, hydrophobins evolved from duplication events. Whatever the treatment and the fungal species, the pattern of expression of hydrophobins followed a reciprocal function, with one gene much more expressed than others from the same repertoire. These most-expressed hydrophobin genes were also among the most expressed of the whole genome, which suggests that they play a role as structural proteins. The fine-tuning of the expression of hydrophobin genes in each condition appeared complex because it differed considerably between species, in a way that could not be explained by simple ecological traits. Hydrophobin gene regulation in mycorrhizal tissue as compared with free-living mycelium, however, was significantly associated with a calculated high exposure of hydrophilic residues.

Carbon availability triggers the decomposition of plant litter and assimilation of nitrogen by an ectomycorrhizal fungus

The majority of nitrogen in forest soils is found in organic matter-protein complexes. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are thought to have a key role in decomposing and mobilizing nitrogen from such complexes. However, little is known about the mechanisms governing these processes, how they are regulated by the carbon in the host plant and the availability of more easily available forms of nitrogen sources. Here we used spectroscopic analyses and transcriptome profiling to examine how the presence or absence of glucose and/or ammonium regulates decomposition of litter material and nitrogen mobilization by the ectomycorrhizal fungus Paxillus involutus. We found that the assimilation of nitrogen and the decomposition of the litter material are triggered by the addition of glucose. Glucose addition also resulted in upregulation of the expression of genes encoding enzymes involved in oxidative degradation of polysaccharides and polyphenols, peptidases, nitrogen transporters and enzymes in pathways of the nitrogen and carbon metabolism. In contrast, the addition of ammonium to organic matter had relatively minor effects on the expression of transcripts and the decomposition of litter material, occurring only when glucose was present. On the basis of spectroscopic analyses, three major types of chemical modifications of the litter material were observed, each correlated with the expression of specific sets of genes encoding extracellular enzymes. Our data suggest that the expression of the decomposition and nitrogen assimilation processes of EMF can be tightly regulated by the host carbon supply and that the availability of inorganic nitrogen as such has limited effects on saprotrophic activities.