CREA advances BOOSTER’s drought-resilience breakthroughs with new genomic insights, global outreach, and stakeholder engagement

CREA’s multi-team contributions accelerate BOOSTER’s scientific and stakeholder impact. The CREA teams across CI Bergamo and GB Fiorenzuola D’Arda have delivered major advances in BOOSTER’s mission to uncover the genetic and molecular mechanisms behind drought tolerance in cereal crops.

Building on the state-of-the-art MNase-defined cistrome occupancy analysis (MOA-seq) method (first optimized in maize) the teams applied this innovative approach to map transcription factor (TF) binding under drought stress in teff.

Working closely with colleagues from UDUS, UBERN, EIAR, and external collaborators at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the researchers generated the first comprehensive drought-responsive TF-binding atlas across teff genotypes and their F1 hybrids. By quantifying both genetic (SNPs, InDels) and epigenetic (cytosine methylation) variation, they identified a set of regulatory variants within cis-regulatory elements (CREs) controlling key drought-response genes. These variants will now undergo validation, including via genome editing, to accelerate breeding pipelines for drought-resilient teff varieties.

In parallel, CREA, in collaboration with UCT, MSU, and UDUS extended MOA-seq and transcriptomics to the desiccation-tolerant species Eragrostis nindensis. Comparing genomic responses across E. nindensis, teff, and maize will help identify both conserved and unique protective mechanisms, as well as enable the exploration of strategies to transfer genetic traits from more drought-tolerant species to more sensitive ones (e.g. from teff/E. nindensis to maize, and from E. nindensis to teff). CREA Bergamo also leveraged the BonnMu maize mutant collection to identify knock-out variants in priority drought-responsive genes discovered through BOOSTER’s MOA/mRNA-seq pipeline. Field evaluations in Bergamo, along with planned winter-nursery propagation in Mexico, will generate mutant lines representing one of the approaches adopted to validate the top candidate genes identified through the MOA strategy for improving drought resilience in maize.

BOOSTER science showcased on global stages. BOOSTER results and methodologies were presented across several high-profile international events:

• V Molecular Biosystems Conference 2025, Chile: Bojana Banović Đeri (CREA-CI) delivered a well-received talk, “Integrative Analysis of Gene Expression and Transcription Factor Binding Uncovers Molecular Mechanisms of Drought Stress and Rehydration in Eragrostis nindensis”, sharing BOOSTER’s comparative genomics insights with over 130 researchers in eukaryotic gene regulation.
• Nextflow Summit 2025: Jacopo Tartaglia (CREA-GB) presented how the integration of Nextflow and cloud computing is powering BOOSTER’s large-scale bioinformatics workflows. His talk highlighted CREAs transition to scalable, reproducible, cloud-based genomics pipelines that underpin BOOSTER’s regulatory-genomics discoveries.
• Agri-Food Innovation Festival 2025: CREA-PB presented the BOOSTER poster during one of Italy’s leading events on agri-food innovation, engaging stakeholders on future-facing topics such as digitalisation, sustainability, and crop resilience.

CREA-PB further expanded BOOSTER’s knowledge base by participating in the advanced FAO–CIHEAM training course on wastewater reuse for agriculture. The week-long programme brought together representatives from 11 Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries to address water scarcity challenges and sustainable water-management strategies. The course emphasised the role of biostimulants and drought-tolerant crop varieties, two pillars of BOOSTER’s scientific strategy, in enabling resilience under saline, desalinated, or treated wastewater irrigation. CREA-PB researcher Andrea Martelli was selected for in-person participation and awarded a scholarship covering registration fees.

CREA-PB has also launched a major socio-economic study within BOOSTER: “The Adoption of Biostimulants to Mitigate Abiotic Stresses: Stakeholders’ Perspectives and the Crucial Role of Water.”

The analysis will involve about 100 farmers across Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany, South Africa, and Ethiopia using a discrete-choice experiment survey. The study focuses on two key crops, maize and teff, and two types of biostimulants: marine-algae extracts and drought-adapted PGPR. By examining farmers’ perceptions, willingness to adopt, and barriers to implementation, the research will assess the drivers influencing sustainable-practice uptake, identify enabling conditions for biostimulant adoption, and provide recommendations for policymakers, industry, and the BOOSTER Stakeholder Network. The findings will contribute to broader climate-smart agriculture strategies, informing how innovative biostimulants and water-efficient practices can strengthen crop resilience under increasingly severe water-stress conditions.