POLLINATOR-ASSISTED BREEDING

Are we releasing new resilient and pollinator-friendly plant varieties?

The Plant Hormones group of CEBAS-CSIC in Murcia (South-East Spain) has developed a new phenotyping platform, as part of the EIC Pathfinder project DARkWIN. This platform integrates six different greenhouse modules where plants are monitored for pollinators´ activity.

Climatic-conditions as well as fertigation regime are eligible for each module were plants are grown, and more than 300 radiofrequency antennae are placed for tracking of bumblebees at individual level.

A fully-equipped team trained to capture and tag bumblebees and an automated pipeline designed by CAR-CSIC researchers are ready to work for interested users. Also, plant performance and fruit quality analysis are available.

The platform is optimized for tomato plants but can be adapted to other vegetables that require or benefit from animal pollination as cucumber, strawberry, melon or watermelon.

The project will be presented by the coordination team, and a virtual visit will take place from the greenhouse, so we will be able to solve the emerging doubts by a live demonstration.

Sign-up and register your experimental proposal for plant phenotyping at DARkWIN platform.