Testing the TaCo Pathway: An Interview with the AgroBioinstitute
From greenhouse trials to protocol calibration, our Bulgarian partners are validating the TaCo pathway’s potential to boost crop resilience.
As the CROP4CLIMA project advances into its final year, the AgroBioInstitute (ABI) in Bulgaria is making major contributions to testing and validating the project’s core innovation: the TaCo pathway. Their work is focused on one of agriculture’s most pressing challenges—helping crops maintain productivity even under drought conditions.
“Our main responsibilities are related to assessing carbon dioxide assimilation under drought in rapeseed lines with the integrated TaCo pathway,” the ABI team explained. At this stage of the project, they are actively working on greenhouse experiments and the calibration of physiological measurement protocols to ensure consistency across trials.
These efforts are part of ABI’s role in two major work packages: building methodologies for pathway integration and validating performance under stress. Their detailed characterizations include measurements like photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and quantum yield—critical indicators of how well the plants handle water scarcity.
ABI’s collaboration with other partners, particularly EVOGENE, has been key. “We work in close collaboration with EVOGENE on all rapeseed experiments,” they said, also giving a nod to the communication team at INsociety: “The support in developing dissemination materials has been highly valuable.”
Reflecting on their experience, the ABI team noted that participating in CROP4CLIMA brought new energy and learning. “We are well experienced in EU projects, but this one has added exciting new experiences—any challenges we’ve faced have been met with strong partner collaboration.”
Looking ahead, the team is hopeful: “We believe the outcomes will be very positive. Obtaining stress-tolerant rapeseed lines with the TaCo pathway could significantly contribute to sustainable agriculture and environmental goals.”
And with a smile, they added: “We still believe we’ll manage to arrange a face-to-face meeting of all participants before the end of the project!”