Federal Grant Award Summary

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology received a $285,000 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) (CFDA 10.310) for the period April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2028. The grant supports the development and application of genomic tools to advance the domestication of Silphium species, two native perennial plants with drought tolerance and high oil seed content. The primary deliverables include genotyping multiple Silphium populations using the SILPHIUM50K platform—a novel, cost-efficient genotyping tool targeting 50,000 loci across both species' genomes—and developing genomic prediction models to improve seed weight, morphology, and oil content through accelerated breeding cycles.

The project combines advanced phenotyping methodologies, including multispectral imaging for seed characterization and high-performance liquid chromatography for fatty acid composition analysis, with genomic data to generate and validate predictive models for trait selection. These prediction models will be deployed throughout the Silphium domestication program to enable more efficient selection of superior individuals. The approaches and tools developed are designed to be transferable to other emerging crop species with limited genomic resources, thereby reducing costs and timelines for molecular marker development and phenotyping while increasing genetic gains per breeding cycle.