The University of California, Davis was awarded a $180,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program (CFDA 10.310). The grant will fund research to determine how the interactome of the tomato brown rugose fruit virus movement protein impacts pathogenicity and immunity evasion in tomatoes. The university will use biochemical, cellular, and genetic...
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) received a $120,000 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program. The award will fund research from June 2023 through May 2025 to identify ubiquitin ligase (E3) enzymes and E3 protein targets involved in plant immunity pathways. The research aims to characterize the mechanisms by which E3 enzymes...
This $748,123 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Project Grant awarded to the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) aims to elucidate the genetic mechanisms and identify factors contributing to root-knot nematode outbreaks in resistant tomato plants. The project will use comparative genomics to investigate the fitness costs associated with resistance-breaking nematode populations, and develop rapid diagnostic tools to identify resistant...
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) received a $799,999 Project Grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) to develop tomato plants with increased nitrogen use efficiency. The project aims to identify and characterize key tomato genes involved in nitrogen metabolism, with the goal of breeding plants that can maximize yield and quality traits with reduced nitrogen fertilizer input. This research...
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program to elucidate the biosynthesis and ecological importance of anti-herbivory acylhexoses in the Solanaceae plant family. The research will combine plant biochemistry, analytical chemistry, plant transformation, and plant-insect interaction studies to provide a fundamental understanding of the molecular...
This $180,000 Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA 10.310) aims to advance the understanding of Clavibacter, a genus of gram-positive, xylem-colonizing bacteria that includes important plant pathogens. The project will identify and characterize a receptor for a Clavibacter-secreted effector, marking the discovery of the first plant receptor for a gram-positive bacterium. It will...
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) received a $906,707 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant period is from May 15, 2023 through May 14, 2026. Under the award, UC Davis will provide mechanistic insights into the chemical ecology of plant root microbiomes. The university will define the chemical specificities of bacterial...
The University of California, Davis has been awarded a $225,000 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) grant program. The funding will support research to investigate target genes that contribute to the growth of pathogenic bacteria inside plant hosts, with the goal of developing control strategies to limit the spread and severity of bacterial plant diseases. This research, taking place from June 1, 2024 to September 14,...
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) was awarded a $999,997 Project Grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.303 - Integrated Programs) to develop and deliver technology-based solutions for organic tomato production. The project integrates frontier technologies in optical sensing, cold plasma, and advanced lighting to promote adoption of organic tomato farming. UC Davis will collaborate with Cornell University and the...
The Regents of the University of California at Riverside received a $649,990 Project Grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant, effective July 1, 2024, supports research to understand how plant pathogens called Liberibacters evade and suppress plant immune responses. The project aims to generate knowledge about Liberibacter effector proteins and their mechanisms of altering plant immunity,...