The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) was awarded a $177,891 Project Grant from the Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) program. The objective of this 3-year research project is to enhance the ability of beneficial bacterial inoculants to compete and persist in various soil environments. The project aims to apply directed selection pressures to microbes in culture in order to...
This Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture provides $499,499 to support an undergraduate food microbiology research program at The Pennsylvania State University from May 1, 2021 to April 30, 2026. The award funds a summer research program that engages undergraduate students in hands-on food microbiology research projects with bioinformatics components. Students develop computational skills working with genomics and...
The Pennsylvania State University received a two-year $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 competitive grants program (AFRI, CFDA #10.310). The university will sequence a collection of suspected novel Escherichia coli O-antigen gene clusters, identify biomarker genes to refine E. coli O-antigen detection technologies, and clone novel O-antigen gene clusters...
The Pennsylvania State University, doing business as Penn State, received a $300,000 Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. This grant aims to elucidate the organisms and microbial-mediated mechanisms associated with controlling the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahlia race 1 in distinct disease-suppressive soils. The project includes three key objectives: 1) identifying the microbial taxa and functions...
The Pennsylvania State University, doing business as Penn State, has been awarded a $829,271.00 project grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. This grant aims to develop a mechanistic understanding of the microbiome associated with mushroom development, referred to as the "mushroom devome" (developmental microbiome), as well as disease suppression. The research will take advantage of...
The Pennsylvania State University received a $179,748 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The three-year award beginning June 1, 2023 will fund research into the impact of varying soil textures on carbon storage and microbial communities under changing precipitation patterns. Penn State researchers will conduct a controlled laboratory...
The Pennsylvania State University received a $1,247,490 Project Grant award from the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture on September 15, 2022 to complete work by September 14, 2026. The funding supports research into the genetic basis of maize response to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (AFRI, CFDA No. 10.310). The AFRI program aims to provide funding for fundamental and applied...
The Pennsylvania State University, doing business as Penn State, was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant will be used to develop an integrated modeling framework to understand nitrate dynamics and generate spatially and temporally continuous daily nitrate concentration data in agricultural watersheds. This data will be used to evaluate ecosystem health and...
The Pennsylvania State University received a $180,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.310 Agriculture and Food Research Initiative) to conduct research on leveraging soil microbial communities to support sustainable agriculture. The three-year project will utilize controlled greenhouse experiments and long-term field trials to determine the specific microbes and microbial functions promoted by different cover...
The Pennsylvania State University received a $120,000 project grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The grant will fund research into the role of the PRAMEY protein in early bovine embryonic development and its potential influence on epigenetic remodeling. Penn State researchers will utilize in vitro fertilization techniques to produce cattle embryos at...