Our group specializes in the effects of salt on the root architecture. Though we use Arabidopsis as a model in a lot our studies, we already try to transfer our knowledge to tomato and, soon, to potato. We are very happy to announce that we can add lettuce as another crop species to that list. NWO just granted a research program that includes our proposal on resilience of lettuce to stress within a big consortium composed of 12 academic research groups from 3 universities and 6 breeding companies. We will join forces to apply our individual specialities to improving lettuce production under various conditions. The aim is to find lettuce cultivars that are more resilient to pathogens, adapted to different environments and suitable to de produced in new growing facilities. Our group will be focusing, of course, on the effect of soil salinity on lettuce growth.
The consortium will be composed of breeding companies: Bejo, Enza Zaden, Rijk Zwaan, Syngenta, Takii, and Vilmorin&Cie as well as CGN, and academic groups led by: Eric Schranz, Sandra Smit, Jeroen de Ridder, Berend Snel, Basten Snoek, Remko Offringa, Renze Heidstra, Ronald Pierik, Marcel Proveniers, Mark Aarts, Marieke Jeuken and overall coordinated by Guido Van den Ackerveken.
Roots in Salt 