Understanding the Complexity of Concurrent Stresses

We conduct novel research on concomitant multiple abiotic and biotic stress interactions and their impacts on maize. As advancing global warming increasingly leads to situations of multiple stress in farmers’ fields, this research is highly relevant to prevent massive yield losses and meet the pressing challenges of food security in the face of climate change.

To close key knowledge gaps, we conduct a concerted research effort to investigate how the combined effects of drought and nitrogen deficiency, alongside the foliar disease Setosphaeria turcica and the stem borer, impact the growth, yield, and stover quality of maize under field conditions. To improve our mechanistic/process-based understanding of such interactions at different organisational levels (from the genetic via biochemical to the ecophysiological/field level), we will establish and utilise common field experimental platforms (rain-out shelters (ROUTS)), and, in parallel, conduct satellite experiments under controlled conditions.

In the Central Experiments (CE), six carefully selected commercial maize hybrid genotypes will be investigated in the ROUTS in Germany (DE) and Kenya (KE) over three field seasons. This enables a comparison of the crop stress responses of maize hybrids from temperate and tropical climate zones under different environmental conditions. These CE experiments will be complemented by diversity screening experiments in the greenhouse and in the field to assess the variability of stress response mechanisms in highly diverse maize populations – using high-throughput transcriptomics as well as metabolomics.