Incorporating biomolecules as integral parts of computational systems represents a frontier challenge in bio and nanotechnology. Using DNA to store digital data is an attractive alternative to conventional information technologies due to its high information density and long lifetime. However, developing an adequate DNA storage medium remains a significant challenge in permitting the safe archival and retrieval of oligonucleotides. TextaDNA introduces polymer fibres as a novel approach to encapsulating and retrieving information-carrying oligonucleotides. We will develop a complete DNA storage workflow, encoding digital information into DNA base sequences and optimising oligonucleotide synthesis and encapsulation in polymer nano and microfibres. The project is led by nanoGUNE, a nanotechnology research centre, and partners with Eurofins, a leading European company specialising in state-of-art oligo synthesis and next-generation sequencing. We will design next-generation sequencing assays to automate the DNA digital storage readout retrieved from fibres. The enhanced oligo synthesis and sequencing strategies that, TextaDNA will develop are of fundamental interest in the path toward broader use of DNA digital storage, increasing synthesis speed and length of oligos and reducing costs. The consortium will create the conditions for encapsulating oligonucleotides inside polymer fibres and methods to retrieve them. We will establish efficient methods of synthesising oligonucleotides going beyond state-of-art phosphorodiamidate chemistry while ensuring their stability. Further, TextaDNA will also explore ways of incorporating sequencing technologies into reading digital data stored in oligonucleotide pools and expand the data storage capabilities of DNA. TextaDNA will add to the European leadership in DNA data digital storage by leveraging oligo synthesis and sequencing with nanotechnology to build DNA digital storage materials.

BarleyMicroBreed builds on the paradigm that crop resource efficiency and stress resilience can be significantly improved by optimizing the capacity of plant roots to efficiently interact with the existing soil microbiota. We therefore propose to advance our mechanistic understanding of interactions between the crop plant genome, root phenotypic traits, and the root-associated microbiota to identify novel breeding strategies for crops tailored to harness the benefits of the indigenous soil microbial diversity. A holo-omics analysis of functionally annotated barley genomes together with a catalogue of root microbiota assemblages and phenotypic data including drought responses of 600 barley varieties determined in field trials in Austria, Lebanon and Morocco, will enable the identification of barley genome components, microbiota members and root traits important for drought resilience. Barley genome regions putatively important for microbiota assembly and drought resistance will be validated by gene knock-outs and causative effects will be explored using a combination of metabolomics, metagenomics and root phenotyping in pot and rhizobox experiments. To improve root phenotyping, we will develop tools including core break imaging systems, software developments for “gap filling” in rhizobox phenotyping, and models to infer seedling to mature root system architecture. Finally, with the knowledge of the genetic regulation of phenotypic root plasticity of barley lines we will implement strategies to create drought adaptive barley varieties with improved root systems and microbiomes. A selection of lines based on drought responses, microbiome assembly and root systems will be backcrossed into elite European lines and tested in field trials. We argue that breeding for crops tailored to harness the benefits of the indigenous soil microbial diversity rather than inoculating crops with plant-beneficial microorganisms will be a much more feasible and long-lasting strategy.