Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of Florida's Division of Sponsored Research received a $617,000 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) program (CFDA 10.310), effective April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2030. The project will develop and implement a directed enzyme evolution coupled with targeted gene editing (DE-GE) pipeline to improve fruit quality traits in strawberry crops. Specifically, researchers will use continuous directed evolution and artificial intelligence-guided protein design to engineer phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) enzyme variants that act on tyrosine rather than phenylalanine, thereby enhancing the metabolic pathway to anthocyanins and lignin. The team will identify and validate PAL variants using a yeast expression platform, apply gene editing to introduce the desired mutations into native PAL genes, and evaluate resulting strawberry lines for firmness, skin toughness, anthocyanin content and distribution, and volatile profiles.

The project will establish a novel plant breeding pipeline for high-value specialty crops by translating laboratory-optimized enzyme variants into commercial agricultural applications. Performance will occur in Gainesville, Florida, with direct commercialization potential through the University of Florida's existing strawberry breeding program. This research addresses critical AFRI priority areas in plant health and production by demonstrating the practical deployment of advanced molecular breeding techniques previously underutilized in plant breeding despite significant potential.