EnergyCrop : How to make superpower plants ?

In a world where the need for food supply is constantly growing, it appears more and more necessary to find new ways to increase agriculture yields. Boosting the ability of plants to use their energy sources has recently emerged as a promising perspective to engineer more productive and stress-tolerant crops.

In this context, the MetaboActions group has obtained a 156k€ funding from theCarnot  Institute Plant2Pro to develop during three years (2019-2021) the innovative EnergyCrop project. This one will investigate the technical challenges as well as the physiological consequences of obtaining plants which accumulate Nicotinamide adénine dinucléotide (NAD+), a critical metabolite of energetic processes in plants. Already secured by two patents and including studies of economically relevant species such as tomato, rice and colza, the project will pursue strong translational objectives. Coordinated by Bertrand Gakière, head of the Metabolism-Metabolite Platform at IPS2, EnergyCrop also involves partners at IGEPP in Rennes and at AGAP in Montpellier.