Summer recap from the PRO-WILD activities

Over the past summer months, the PRO-WILD researchers have been busy. Despite difficult conditions, some were out in the field to set up trials, while others were inside greenhouses or in the laboratory conducting experiments. Let's take a glimpse at their recent work on crop wild relatives (CWRs) and look ahead at the remaining months of 2026.

The planthopper P. leporinus is the main vector for SBR in sugar beet. It transmits disease-associated bacteria to the plants. Photo: IfZ

Woman in a sugar beet field holding a butterfly net.

Catching planthoppers is a tricky task. Still, using large nets to sweep the sugar beet plants, researchers at IfZ managed to collect more than 2500 planthoppers earlier this summer! These were then used to inoculate wild relatives of beet to induce syndrome basses richesses in a glasshouse trial. Photo: IfZ

Dry field with a rainshelter structure in the background.

For the open-field trials at UNIPG, an automated rain shelter and an irrigation system were set up to precisely control how much water reaches the beet plants. Photo: UNIPG

The effects of water stress were visible in the dried out beet plants at UNIPG. Photo: UNIPG

Large table with seedlings in a cold room.

Three week old seedlings of wild Beta plants during a cold stress experiment at ELGO in Greece. The initial results of this trial look promising! Photo: ELGO

Brassica montana, a crop wild relative of oilseed rape, before flowering. The PRO-WILD partners at KWS, INRAE and INNOLEA work on crossing wild Brassica species with oilseed rape to integrate beneficial traits from the CWRs. Photo: KWS

Dana was collecting samples from wild emmer wheat populations at their original wild locations. She will compare them to historic populations of wild emmer wheat that she grew in the net house from 40-year-old seeds. Photo: Dana Bar-Zvi, Weizmann Institute

Woman in a lab coat holding a plant with its roots.

Sharon was in the laboratory, sampling the rhizosphere microbiome of wild and modern wheat species. She is particularly interested in the role of Rht dwarfing genes. Photo: Sharon Samuel, Weizmann Insitute

Syndrome basses richesses (SBR) is a disease that affects sugar beet and poses a critical threat to the European sugar beet production. In June, PRO-WILD partners at the Institut für Zuckerrübenforschung (IfZ) were out in the field to catch planthoppers. The planthoppers were then used in glasshouse trials to inoculate wild relatives of beet with SBR-associated bacteria. With these trials, the researchers investigate how SBR affects different species of wild beet, looking for disease-resistant variants, ultimately using their findings to strengthen the sugar beet production.

In Italy, PRO-WILD researchers from the University of Perugia (UNIPG) were also out in the field. At the beginning of summer, they set up an automated rain shelter and irrigation system to study drought tolerance in wild beet species. The effect of the drought stress is clearly visible in the pictures which were taken in September, at the end of the water stress period. Now it is time to assess the data, looking for interesting results!

While many parts of Europe were sweating in the intense summer heat, some beets in Greece were shivering. PRO-WILD not only focuses on water scarcity and heat as an abiotic stress factor, but also at the tolerance of crops to cold temperatures. For this, researchers at ELGO set up a trial where they investigated the response of wild beet relatives to cold stress. The initial results were encouraging, showing again the potential of crop wild relatives for a climate-resilient food production.

At KWS, INRAE and Innolea, PRO-WILD partners investigate the potential of wild Brassica species to enhance the resistance of oilseed rape, a cultivated Brassica species, against cabbage stem flea beetles and clubroot disease. To integrate beneficial traits from a wild Brassica species into oilseed rape, the plants need to be crossed. One requirement for this is the synchronized flowering of both species. Researchers from PRO-WILD use forced vernalization to facilitate this process in Brassica. In a practice abstract that was published earlier this year, they describe the method. Currently, they work on overcoming additional molecular crossing barriers that present a major challenge for using the genetic potential of CWRs.

Finally, the PhD students from PRO-WILD were also busy this summer. Adele Tironi from UNIPG was out in the field, conducting experiments on drought stress in wild beets using the rain shelter system mentioned above. Meanwhile, Dana Bar-Zvi from the Weizman Institute was growing 40-year-old seeds of wild emmer wheat in the net-house and collecting samples from natural emmer wheat at its original location. She will sequence and analyse these historical and contemporary populations of wild emmer wheat to investigate their genetic diversity and contribute to their in-situ and ex-situ conservation. In the laboratory at the Weizman Institute, Sharon Samuel was also conducting experiments. She is studying the rhizosphere microbiome of crop wild relatives alongside modern wheat lines to identify beneficial relationships between microbes and plants to harness these interactions for future wheat improvement.

Now that the autumn months have started, some exciting events are coming up. Next week, the EUCARPIA – Seeds of Resilience Conference 2026 takes place in Malmö. Scientists from PRO-WILD will also be present and share insights from their work on crop wild relatives. At the end of November, the whole PRO-WILD consortium will meet in Norwich to hold their second annual project meeting. We look forward to seeing all those who are contributing to the PRO-WILD project again and to having a fruitful exchange!

If you want to find out more about these experiments and events, you can have a look at our social media pages. On LinkedIn, we will share updates on PRO-WILD research, experiments, events and other news. Stay tuned!