Book with abstracts from the COST Action 0905 meeting in ... - UMB

production, breeding and processing strategies and technologies to improve not only the
processing and sensory quality of rice but the nutrition and health-beneficial characteristics of
the grain.
Genomic approaches can be expected to further promote ground-breaking research that could
lead to unprecedented improvement of rice as food or carbon source. Rice genetics, structural
and functional genomics, comparative genomics, molecular biology and physiology, will all
necessarily be integrated for a significant advance in final molecular assisted breeding
strategies for a new crop ideotype.
Integration of genomics and breeding with the application of agrosystems and
agricultural practices are essential tools to develop the agriculture of the future. Environmental
quality is the main factor of food quality. In particular soil quality, expression of soil fertility,
is the key factor for sustainability of crop production. The term ‘soil quality’ conveys well the
important concept that the soil is a living system, which contains vast assemblages of
organisms responsible for a variety of functions such as decomposition and recycling of
nutrients from dead plant and animal tissues, fixation of nitrogen, maintenance of soil
structure, regulation of the quality of air and water, and detoxification of pollutants by acting
as a sink. Currently the European Union (EU) and many countries all over the world are
developing legislation on soil conservation, soil quality and protection of soil biodiversity.
Italy has recently issued two large consortiums targeted to research on rice, from genetics and
genomics to agronomy, agricultural practices and soil management. The project Risinnova
coordinated by CRA-Agricultural Research Council, is a project targeted to genetic and
genomic research, from the description of biodiversity in the European rice germplasm to the
search for molecular markers for major traits, to assist breeding, and the discovery of genetic
resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. The project Biogesteca, coordinated by the University of
Milan, has a specific focus on the identification of sustainable agricultural practices for the
major cereal crops of the Po plane: maize, rice and wheat. Both projects develop specific
workpackages devoted to the study of soil fertility, association between the rice root system
and the rhizosphere microorganisms, and the impact of cultural conditions on whole plant
health, productivity, and the nutritional value and composition of the grain.