Abstract
While its stratospheric layer constitutes an essential protection against harmful UV radiations, ozone (O3) is one of the prominent air pollutants in the troposphere. As a strong oxidant, ozone is a damaging pollutant with significant impacts on human health and the environment. At cell level, ozone causes a range of physiological disorders that overall contribute to reduce biomass growth and grain filling in crops. Hence, tropospheric ozone can be considered as a “hidden threat” to food security that will add to many others in areas of rapidly increasing population. Wheat is one of the most important and most-widely grown crops, but it is also one of the most sensitive to ozone exposure. Current global yield losses due to ozone are estimated to be between 4 - 15% for wheat and are predicted to range from 5 - 26% for the year 2030. Here, we present a case study of two French winter wheat cultivars exposed to elevated ozone under fully open-air field conditions. The analyses of molecular, metabolic and physiological traits were associated to the evaluation of the agronomic performance of the two cultivars in a season-long fumigation experiment. The obtained data will be discussed with respect to the objective of breeding ozone tolerant wheat genotypes.
Matthieu Bagard
Université Paris Est Créteil - UMR Bioemco