TOLERATE project with title ‘Adaptation to climate change in the rhizosphere across the millennia’  is an EU funded project with 14 partners from 10 different countries and was awarded a total budget of 3.9 million euros. It is funded under HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions and granted by the European Research Executive Agency. TOLERATE will improve plant drought-tolerance via soil bio-augmentation with rhizosphere soil bacteria engineered to produce drought-beneficial traits. We will express ancient genes from past geological times that have already experienced climate change and extreme heat and drought events. In parallel, we will also explore their biotechnological potential for bioproducts with novel or enhanced functionalities. Specifically, starting from a unique collection of paleo-environmental samples (frozen Arctic soils and sediments) and their corresponding ancient DNA (aDNA) metagenomes, that stretch back up to a million years, we will retrieve information on how rhizosphere biodiversity and functionality responded to climate changes and extreme events. Preliminary metagenomic data from the collection suggests it is a gold mine of archaic DNA that represents a timeline of adaptions to climate change in the rhizosphere.

By reconstructing and analyzing these ancient metagenomes and correlating with available historical climatic change data, we will identify molecular adaptions that impart climate tolerance in order to:

i) produce and test engineered root-colonizing bacteria that will improve climate tolerance of plants facilitating the ability to grow on marginal agricultural land

ii) inform ancestral reconstruction of thermostable and/or cold tolerant enzymes for industrial application

iii) produce engineered Pseudomonas putida strains tailored for bioproduction. For the latter application, we will select genes that encode biomolecules relevant for climate-tolerant phenotypes.

The production of these molecules using biotechnology will be targeted in the project and their application in selected industrial products verified. Target end-user applications will include polysaccharides and betaines for the development of 3D printed organ-on-chip and drug delivery systems as well as the formulation of metalworking fluids, lubricants and industrial cleaning products.