“Domesticated plants relative to wild plants are like dogs relative to wolves: they have lost defenses”

What do plant roots do, underground?
Roots not only take water and nutrients from the soil. They also introduce compounds into the soil: substances that can be liquid, and are called exudates, or gaseous, and are called volatile organic compounds. These substances have the ability to make changes in the soil, for example, so that it absorbs more water. They can also attract the attention of beneficial microbes that come close to the root and protect it. This is how roots can last longer with less water.

Interesting, in terms of drought resistance.
Yes. And we already know that the roots of wild varieties, and some traditional ones, emit more types of compounds than the roots of modern crops. As a consequence, the microbes are also different. The reason is that, for commercialization, we have selected varieties that grow very fast and produce a lot of seeds, but do not put too many resources into their own roots. They don’t need to, because we already do: we put water, fertilizers, pesticides… It’s like a dog and a wolf. A wolf needs to have more defenses, but the pet doesn’t, because we take care of it. It has lost defenses. This has not happened from one day to the next, but over thousands of years.

“To market, we have selected varieties that grow very fast and produce a lot of seed, but don’t put too many resources into their own roots.”

You will study it from the end of the year as part of the WILD-ROOTS project, which you will lead thanks to the support of the European Research Council (ERC).
Domestication is a process that has been studied for decades, but always referring to the top of the soil: the seeds, the leaves. Until very recently, nobody looked underground, where half of the plant is located and where very important interactions take place. How does it, the plant, take up water and nutrients? How does it communicate with microbes? This is the black box that I want to explore. And these are not only interesting questions, but they have applications. If we look at traditional or wild varieties, we can find aspects that we can incorporate into our agricultural system, for example to cope with drought, which is my current focus. And I don’t mean making genetic modifications, at least for the time being. Rather, I mean that we can incorporate more traditional species into our farming system.

What is the difference between wild varieties and traditional varieties?
The wild ones have not been domesticated and the traditional ones have, but they would be like those tomato plants that a grandmother plants in her garden and that you will not find in the greenhouses of large farms. Now there are organizations that are seeking to recover these traditional varieties, such as the association l’Era or the collective Eixarcolant, with whose seeds we will work in WILD-ROOTS. In fact, in Catalonia there is beginning to be a lot of movement to preserve the varieties that are from here.

Can your research also serve to better understand how plants sequester carbon and contribute to reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?
Exudates, these liquid substances that come out of the roots, are organic compounds that usually contain sugar or other carbon-containing molecules. Microbes eat them, so carbon enters the soil through them. We do not know exactly how long the carbon is stored in the soil; this is another aspect we need to study. If wild plants generate more exudates, it is likely that they sequester more carbon in the soil, which does not return to the air. And this, in addition, can contribute to improved soil health. It’s all related.

How would you like all this research to contribute to society?
I would like to find varieties that can be useful for today’s farmers, especially in a world with less rain. And to recover varieties that are being lost to preserve the history of our country. In general, the more diversity, the better. Otherwise, later, we will not be able to recover it.

What would happen if we don’t recover this diversity?
Crop yields would surely drop. The agricultural world works because we add a lot of extras: water, fertilizers, pesticides. For the moment we can do it, but water may not be as plentiful, fertilizers do not last forever and, if we put pesticides everywhere, we will lose insects. We all know that we must live in a slightly different world. We should save as many varieties as we can, just in case. There are countries that have been thinking about this for a long time because they have noticed the lack of water more. And in Europe it will come. We must prepare ourselves.

“Diversity is a source of characteristics that can help us prepare for a future with more drought, less water and more heat.”

Regarding your professional career, you studied biology at the University of Birmingham and did your thesis and postdoc at the University of Sheffield, in your home country, the U.K. Were you already thinking about doing research when you started biology?
I have always been very interested in the natural world. Animals, plants. Like my parents: we used to go on vacation in the Pyrenees! But I wasn’t particularly interested in research because I didn’t know anyone who did it. During my degree, I spent a year at Imperial College in London, and there I met a lot of people who were doing research. That’s when I started to think about it.

After your PhD in Sheffield, you came to Catalonia, at the Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF). What was it like?
My thesis was on the effects of climate change on Arctic plants. Then, during my postdoc in Sheffield, I realized that it could be good to go abroad to continue my research. I applied for a Marie Curie fellowship, which is a great opportunity, and I got it on the second try. I was very interested in studying soil-plant interactions in relation to climate change, and I looked for good professionals working in this line. That’s how I found Josep Peñuelas, from CREAF, and he was delighted that we gave it a try. In the end the grant came through and I was able to work with him. Another reason for coming was that I liked Catalan and Spanish culture. But the idea was to go and come back [laughs].

And you stayed for six years.
I felt very well here. I continued with annual contracts and ended up making my personal life in Catalonia.

Coinciding with the pandemic, you go to Belgium.
I won another grant. In the scientific world, if we don’t have permanent contracts, we must continually look for opportunities. I went to Belgium to learn more about soil. I stayed for a couple of years.

And, at the beginning of last year, you landed at IRTA. For what purpose?
They were looking for a permanent researcher. My partner is Catalan and we wanted to live here, so it seemed like an opportunity. I didn’t have a concrete project, but I had clear ideas about what I like to research.

What would you highlight about IRTA?
Before coming here, I was already attracted by the opportunity that IRTA offered me to do more applied research. Sometimes, when you do research, you have the feeling that the message doesn’t reach people. At IRTA you have a strong link with the agricultural sector and also with the Generalitat. In addition, it has a large team of technical support staff, very good people with more experience than me, who help me a lot. They are people who can be in the laboratory or in the greenhouse if I need to be at the computer doing other tasks, such as writing projects or analyzing data.

Throughout this research journey, there is a common thread, which is your interest in climate change and in understanding how crops have been domesticated.
In Sheffield, during my postdoc, I worked with archaeologists and very diverse professionals to understand the domestication of crops. Ten thousand years ago, with the advent of agriculture, there was an immense change. But there are many things we don’t know. We only have traces of some seeds from that time. Why, of all the species that we could eat, do we eat so few? Why has their diversity dropped so much, especially in Europe? As I mentioned before, diversity is a source of characteristics that can help us prepare for a future with more drought, less water and more heat. If we don’t study it, we are missing an opportunity.

At CREAF you focused more on trees and now you will work with a multitude of crops.
At CREAF I focused on oaks and pines, and in Belgium I made a kind of small WILD-ROOTS, with ten crops. Now there will be twenty. After that, maybe we will focus more on some of them, but it will probably be difficult to generalize the results, because it seems that each species does somewhat different things.

A large part of your research career has been possible thanks to grants. At IRTA, in addition to the ERC, you also work with a Ramón y Cajal grant. To what extent is it important to have these grants to move forward?
In Spain it is the only way to do research; there are very few opportunities to be permanent or to work otherwise. Europe is a very good source and the Marie Curie and European Research Council grants are among the best. In fact, IRTA has many European projects. The state grants give much less money. The European ones allow you to do more and for a longer period of time. In my case, I now have five years to concentrate on WILD-ROOTS research. And, luckily, I am now permanent at IRTA, almost forty years old, but there are many people of the same age who are not in this situation.

In fact, the ERC Consolidation Grant is allowing you to lead your own research group. How do you feel?
It’s a brutal opportunity. A lot of people could do it if there were more resources. I have tried it because I have seen people around me who have tried and succeeded. My partner is also a researcher and has gotten similar resources. I thought it was worth a try. You have to try it: if you don’t try it, you won’t know. I’m excited, eager to get started.

All this, when you are about to give birth to your second child. How is the experience, as a research couple, of combining parenting with research?
It’s going to be a complicated year [laughs]. But you can’t wait until everything is in place. And, on the other hand, a research career can be flexible. I don’t have fixed hours, and this helps. Maybe there are professions that have it more difficult. A research career is not incompatible with motherhood, and being a mother gives you more reason to find meaning in what you are doing.

In fact, it is said that if we continue at the current rate of production and consumption, in 2050 there will not be enough food to feed everyone. How do you see it?
I try to be optimistic. I think we have the tools to improve the situation. It’s more a question of whether politicians and big business want to do it. It is not an impossible challenge, but it needs to be better managed. If we make small changes in the agricultural system, in 25 years we can be in a much better situation than we are in now. I believe that people are already aware that the way of farming can be improved. But it must be profitable and productive.

What can people do, on a day-to-day basis, to contribute to this?
First of all, buy local, because here we have the luxury of producing a lot of food. Go to the market! Also, try to eat a diversity of vegetables, try a variety of foods, because if we don’t eat them, the farmers won’t produce them. And then, ask where what we eat comes from. Finally, if we have a vegetable garden or our family has one, try to continue it, to preserve its seeds and maintain that diversity, which is vital.