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Privacy policy General information The WISH-ROOTS consortium (we or us) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. For the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) [EU 2016/679], Data Protection Act 1998 and any of its successive legislations (the Act), the data controller is Dr. Maria Hernandez-Soriano, based at John Innes Centre in Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UZ. This website has been developed with the Wix website builder and uses SSL or TLS encryption to protect the transmission of personal data and other confidential content (e.g. orders or inquiries to the controller). You can recognize an encrypted connection by the character string "https://" and the lock symbol in your browser line. 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Meet the WISH-ROOTS Consortium John Innes Centre, UK Tony Miller Current Position : Head of Biochemistry & Metabolism Dept., Senior Scientist at the John Innes Centre, Norwich UK. Education : ​BSc, PhD Hobbies : Cycling Bio : Plant biologist with an interest in membrane transport, nutrient uptake by roots, soil health and rhizosphere N cycling. ​ Role : Co-ordination of the WISH-ROOTS project Maria Hernandez-Soriano Current Position : Postdoctoral researcher at John Innes Centre, UK. Education : ​PhD Bioscience Engineering, KULeuven Hobbies : Painting, Hiking, Swimming Bio : I became an Environmental Chemist because I wanted to understand the natural processes that occur in our soils. That quest has taken me to work in Belgium, USA and Australia. Now I am based at John Innes Centre in UK, exploring these processes in the wheat rhizosphere - the soil influenced by the roots. ​ Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to support the coordination of WISH-ROOTS and to supervise our field trials at JIC Field Station. Luzie U. Wingen Current Position : Quantitative Geneticist, Crop Genetics, John Innes Centre Education : Dr. rer. nat. Biology, University of Cologne, Germany Hobbies : Cycling, Pacifism, Yoga, Cake making, Reading, Knitting, Running Bio : I am fascinated by Biology in general, and why there is so much diversity. Although this question is particularly investigated in Evolutionary research, which I find fascinating, breeding more diverse and high yielding crops is an important task in order to feed the world and to keep space for nature. ​ Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to assist with the bread wheat germplasm selection, field trial design, statistical analysis of data, QTL mapping and wheat genomics. Simon Griffiths Current Position : Group leader at John Innes Centre, UK. Education : ​PhD Hobbies : Fishing Bio : I am a wheat geneticist with specific interest in adaptation and pre-breeding. Role : Supporting germplasm, genetics, and genomics Darryl Playford Current Position : Field Experimentation Manager, John Innes Centre. Experience : Over 30 years of field trials and plant breeding experience Hobbies : Reading, walking, gardening Bio : I grew up with plant breeding on my doorstep with a major plant breeding company operating in my home village. I first started working for the then Miln Masters at the age of 16 and have always enjoyed seeing the development of new varieties and the feeling of having played a part in the process. Now my satisfaction is gained from helping research staff to develop experiments that are not perhaps the ‘standard field trial’. Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to facilitate the growing of the field trial at the JIC Field Station and offer my experience to the project overall.

Meet the WISH-ROOTS Consortium KULeuven, Belgium Erik Smolders Current Position : Professor in environmental chemistry, KU Leuven, Belgium Education : ​PhD in Soil Science, 1993 KU Leuven Hobbies : research, hiking, cycling and singing! Bio : I worked in Australia, UK, USA and Vienna, Professor since 2000 in Leuven, leading a team on trace metals and nutrients, mainly phosphate; we link soil chemistry with bioavailability. My PhD was on…nitrate uptake in plants. In the last few years, renewed interest in rhizosphere processes and nitrogen. My favourite? Combine experiments with models! Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project: lead the field trial with the 20 genotypes in Belgium and contribute to N-15 assisted estimates of N-uptake efficiency and to rhizosphere fate of 15N, i.e. discovering biological nitrification inhibition Léna Wantiez Current Position : PhD student at KULeuven, Belgium Education : Master in Environmental Technologies, KULeuven, Belgium Hobbies : Exploring, swimming, climbing, yoga, readind and cooking. Bio : After high school, I lived one year in Bolivia where I taught French at University of San Simon and discovered yoga. I studied bioengineer in Leuven, my thesis was on the transport of cadmium in the cacao plant. I now look forward to contribute to sustainable agriculture and improving nitrogen use efficiency Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to develop a in-situ method to detect nitrification in the rhizosphere, with the ambition that this methodology can be applied for root phenotyping in field grown plants. Tim De Clercq Current Position : Director at Praktijkpunt Landbouw Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium Education : ​​PhD Bioscience Engineering, KULeuven, Belgium Hobbies : Reading, Swimming, Gardening Bio : Always interested in the mechanics of the natural world, I ended up studying Bioscience Engineering, majoring in corp production and obtaining a PhD in soil science. Since 2017 I work at Praktijkpunt Landbouw Vlaams-Brabant, agricultural research station and extention service with a focus on witloof chicory, grains and non-food crops. Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project, as a subcontractor, is to implement and supervise the Belgian field trials at Praktijkpunt Landbouw . ​

Meet the WISH-ROOTS Consortium IGDB-CAS, China Yang Bai Current Position : Principal investigator, IGDB, Chinese Academic of Science Education : ​Dr. nat. Biology, University of Cologne, Germany Hobbies : Running, reading, teaching Bio : I received my Ph.D from University of Cologne for Arabidopsis trichome development in the lab of Professor Martin Hulskamp in 2010. From 2011 to 2016, I did a Postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in the lab of Professor Paul Schulze-Lefert. There, I worked on the high-throughput bacterial isolation and reconstitution of Arabidopsis root microbiota. In May 2016, I built up my research group in Beijing on the function and mechanism of plant-microbiome interactions. ​ Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to assist the root microbiome related work, including field trails in China, data analysis, microbial cultivation, and functional validation. Xingshu Wang Current Position : Guest scholar at Institute of Genetics and developmental Biology, Chinese Academic of Science. Education : ​PhD Plant Nutrition Science, Northwest A&F University, China Hobbies : Running, swimming Bio : I am working on the nutrient uptake, transfer and distribution of wheat from root to shoot. Also, I want to explore the effect on wheat nutrient with plant-microbiome interactions ​ Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is assist in preparation and field trails.

Rhizosphere microbiome Structural, functional and ecological variation of wheat rhizosphere microbiome associated with nitrogen cycling This work will be supported by platforms and expertise of Prof. Yang Bai and Biome Makers Inc. We will analyse the rhizosphere microbiome for wheat landraces and elite cultivars grown in controlled and field conditions. We will investigate the link between the rhizosphere microbiome composition and functionality with wheat root traits and wheat genomic variation. We will assess the taxonomical and functional core of the rhizosphere microbiome associated to wheat nitrogen cycling and uptake under field conditions in three continents. ​ The data sets collected will be use to: i) functionally validate rhizosphere microbiome members associated with root traits and nitrogen cycling under controlled and field conditions and ii) measure ecological changes in the rhizosphere microbiome for the wheat landraces and cultivars studied. Biome Makers Prof. Yang Bai

Project management, communication, and stakeholders network development We are building a stakeholder network and developing a WISH-ROOTS portal with predictive tools for soil health enhancement ​ ​ ​ ​ The research objectives of the WISH-ROOTS project have been built through a concerted effort of the partners and benefit from their complementary expertise. Therefore, all the partners will have an active role in the management of the project. Stakeholders involvement. A stakeholder network will be built at national and international levels gathering relevant stakeholders with a strong interest in restoration and preservation of agricultural soil through breeding beneficial traits in commercial wheat and seed production. The network will be developed from current collaborators or relevant candidates already identified. ​ WISH-ROOTS portal. The WISH-ROOTS portal will provide stakeholders with access to the WHISH-ROOTS portal dataset and expert summaries for soil quality and health. Repositories. A repository for data derived from field trials (WP2 and WP3) and controlled environment (WP1 and WP3) data will be established (developed by DFW): https://grassroots.tools/fieldtrial/ . We aim to make this repository public during the final year of the project. ​ Create a repository for wheat microbiome with main exudate, core microbiome and networks analysis outcomes. ​ Communications

WISH-ROOTS Tuning the wheat root microbiome to improve soil health and optimize rhizosphere nitrogen cycling and availability Concept and objectives Our wheat Semi-field root phenotyping Field phenotyping Rhizosphere microbiome Data analysis and management Comunication Funding Partners

Field trials The WISH-ROOTS field trials will be running in parallel for two consecutive seasons through 2023 and 2024 at six different locations Beijing, China Brits Experimental Farm, South Africa Campus Klein-Altendorf, Germany Centro Didattico Sperimentale di Cadriano, Italy Dorothea de Winton Field station, UK Praktijkpunt Landbouw, Belgium Pilot field trial at Dorothea de Winton field station, John Innes Centre UK, June 2022 Find our field trials locations pinned on google maps

Meet the WISH-ROOTS Consortium Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany Borjana Arsova Current Position : Group leader - Root Dynamics Group, IBG-2 Plant sciences, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany. Education : ​Dr. rer. nat. Biochemistry, Max Planck institute of Molecular Plant Physiology / University of Potsdam, Germany Hobbies : Running, swimming, reading Bio : My initial interest in plant nutrient uptake and nutrient sensing/ signaling is now expanded to improving these processes via the use of beneficial microbes. Previous work experience includes the Max-Planck of molecular plant Physiology (Potsdam, Germany), University of Düsseldorf (Germany), University of Liege (Belgium). Role : The Root Dynamics group is involved in conducting the large-scale root phenotyping in the IBG-2 rhizotron facility and field trials in Campus Klein-Altendorf close to Bonn. Josefine Kant Current Position : Postdoctoral Researcher at Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany. Education : ​Dr. rer. nat. Plant Sciences, University of Tuebingen, Germany Hobbies : Cycling, Table Tennis Bio : To understand how plants function has interested me since studying Biology, but to improve the nutritional important plants has been my subject since starting my PhD. It has giving me the opportunity to study maize, rice, sorghum, and wheat roots in Germany, USA, and in Japan. Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to supervise and conduct the phenotyping efforts in the Rhizotron facility as well as our field trials at Campus Klein-Altendorf close to Bonn.

WISH-ROOTS ​ Tuning the wheat root microbiome to improve soil health and optimize rhizosphere nitrogen cycling and availability ​ Concept Improvement of soil health by wheat root traits, Hypothesis root morphological and functional traits in wheat landraces can preserve and improve target soil health markers. These beneficial traits, likely lost through wheat domestication, can be introduced in modern wheat cultivars and will be the base of an innovative strategy to restore and preserve agricultural soils. ​ Aim To provide genetic resources and predictive models to breeders and other stakeholders for the introduction of the beneficial root traits in wheat production. Objective To enhance the potential beneficial effects of wheat cultivation on soil health through the identification of root traits that can improve soil structure and optimize nitrogen (N) cycling. ​ For this, the WISH-ROOTS project will aim to: ​ 1) identify key traits associated with functionality of microbial and fungal guilds in the rhizosphere and root system architectural traits ​ 2) find the genes , genomic regions or metabolic pathways in wheat that can benefit soil health ​ 3) develop genetic tools for breeding to introduce these beneficial traits in commercial cultivars. These aims will provide advantageous varieties for farmers that support a more sustainable use of land improving soil microbial biodiversity, N cycling, and structure

Semi-field phenotyping of bread and durum wheat landraces and modern elite cultivars traits related to soil structure and and nitrogen cycling This work will be led by partners at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) ​ ​ ​ The overall aim is to phenotype bread and durum wheat panels for root traits that can have a beneficial impact in soil structure and nitrogen cycling and uptake. The WISH-ROOTS will screen two collections of wheat for root morphological parameters and root exudates. Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) selected from preliminary data will be phenotyped and the data will be used to link target root traits with regions of the wheat genome. ​ The Germplasm Resource Unit (JIC) and UniBo will provide bread and durum wheat germplasm collections as well as RILs obtained from crosses of landraces and modern cultivars. ​ Collections will include landraces and sequenced lines previously highlighted by their ability to control nitrification in the rhizosphere, landrace selections previously assessed on field conditions over the last three years and preliminary assessed for agronomic value, biomass production and root traits . The novel large Rhizotron facility of FZJ with up to 896 plants growing in parallel and vastly automated handling will be employed and will allow state-of-the-art detailed, dynamic root phenotyping. . FZ-Julich Our wheat

Meet the WISH-ROOTS Consortium Biome Makers Inc. Spain Biome Makers integrates soil microbiology into agricultural decision-making to optimize farming practices and reverse the degradation of arable soils. With labs across the globe, customers on 4 continents, and 1M+ acres of land impacted, Biome Makers has revitalized soil functionality and agricultural sustainability worldwide. ​ BeCrop® Technology provides key insights to improve soil health, increase crop yield and quality, and reduce farm costs. BeCrop® is the missing puzzle piece in agriculture that connects soil needs to inputs and illuminates the path towards regenerating soils. Alberto Acedo Current Position : CSO & Co-Founder at Biome Makers Education : Ph.D. Genetic Medicine and Biomedical Applications - University of Valladolid (Spain) Bio : Scientific soul of Biome Makers´ technology. Alberto is a genetists with a large number of recognitions such as TR35 España in 2014 by MIT Technology Review, CSIC Investigator and Extraordinary Doctorate Award 2015. Enthusiastic about biotechnology with great experience in this field. Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to provide a specialized taxonomical and functional platform for analysis of rhizosphere soil microbiome Irene Baena Current Position : Innovation Manager at Biome Makers Education : ​PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biomedicine and Biotechnology (Biosciences). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Hobbies : Hiking, surfing, puzzles, DIY, cooking, and reading. Bio : I studied Biology and got more specialized in environmental microbiology during my Master and PhD at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. My thesis project was focused on unraveling a very specific genetic pathway that regulates the production of a Rhizobium exopolysaccharide through the second messenger cyclic-di-GMP. After that stage I left the “wet lab” and since 2016 I dedicated myself more to R&I project management and consultancy activities, both in the academic sector and in private companies. Role : My role in the WISH-ROOTS project is to monitor and coordinate the activities in which Biome Makers is involved, especially samples handling and soil microbiome analysis, ensuring an effective communication with all partners and a quality delivery of results.