Cooperative Agreement 5880428025F

The University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (UGA Research Foundation) was awarded a $789,777 Project Grant under the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)'s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The funding supports research to elucidate the mechanisms of pathogenicity and host specificity of the devastating plant pathogen Phytophthora palmivora. Key objectives include determining how the pathogenicity factor PPALRXLR1 confers infection capability,...

This is a $1,094,620 project grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Integrative Organismal Systems under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. The research aims to reveal the molecular mechanisms behind cassava's natural resistance to cassava mosaic disease, a devastating viral pathogen impacting this important food crop across Africa and Asia. Key activities include: Characterizing viral replication rates and...

The Project Grant award of $760,506 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (AFRI program, CFDA 10.310) to the Boyce Thompson Institute For Plant Research Inc. aims to develop new traits for disease resistance that can revolutionize potato late blight protection. The key objectives are to: 1) bioengineer solanaceous immune decoy receptors to combat virulent strains of the potato late blight pathogen, 2) utilize exonuclease-endonuclease fusions for...

This $451,139 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program supports the development of a new biotechnology called Transposase-Assisted Homology-Independent Targeted Insertion (TAHITI) for intragenic genome engineering of plants. The research aims to improve crop traits like disease resistance and yield by precisely inserting DNA sequences sourced from the same plant species, rather than relying on transgenic approaches that introduce...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) federal grant program provides $797,594 to Auburn University to develop crops with stable immunity that can withstand both evolving pathogen pressure and suboptimal growth temperatures. The project, which runs from May 1, 2025 to April 30, 2028, will utilize field and growth chamber experiments to investigate how pathogens and plants with different resistance genes respond to temperature changes....

This $836,100 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083) aims to enhance understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying the bacterial wilt disease that affects cucurbit crops like cucumbers and melons. The key objectives are to screen and characterize disease resistance traits in diverse cucumber and melon populations, and leverage this knowledge to develop sustainable management strategies for this critical agricultural...

The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded $490,000 under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive federal grants program to Gene Shifters, LLC for a project grant titled "Developing a Targeted Method of Alien Gene Transfer to Introduce Ascochyta Blight Resistance in Chickpea." The project aims to develop a novel, targeted method for transferring disease resistance genes from wild chickpea relatives to cultivated varieties in...

This $506,900 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research at the University of California, Davis to understand the molecular mechanisms of plant immune response to herbivore-associated peptide elicitors. The three-year award beginning June 1, 2022 will leverage a newly discovered pattern recognition receptor in common beans, INR, to quantify its contribution to overall herbivore defense against caterpillars. Researchers will...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $498,983 to Carthage College to develop two biochemical tools to study Potato Virus Y (PVY) infection in plants. The key products to be delivered include: A synthetic PVY viral clone to facilitate the targeted design of chimeric viruses and identify the genetic determinants of PVY infectivity. An enzymatic reporter probe to enable earlier detection of PVY spread within the host...

This $5,953,802 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) program funds a multi-institutional effort led by New Mexico State University to develop an integrated, system-based approach to significantly reduce the risk of Phytophthora blight in vegetable crops like peppers and cucurbits. The project aims to: 1) evaluate genetic diversity of the causal agent Phytophthora capsici, 2) identify resistant crop genotypes tolerant to...