This $600,000 Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (AFRI program, CFDA 10.310) aims to identify the specific antimicrobial molecules produced by the beneficial bacterium Pseudomonas protegens PBL3 and understand how they inhibit the growth of a pathogenic bacterium that causes a devastating disease in rice crops. The goal is to develop biologically-based solutions to control crop diseases and reduce losses, thereby alleviating...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Activities (CFDA 47.083) Program Project Grant award to the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, doing business as the University of Nebraska, will investigate how chloroplast retrograde signaling in living plant cells operates during plant immunity and how pathogens interfere with this process. The $135,322 award, effective October 1, 2023 through October 31, 2024, will leverage advanced live-imaging microscopy technologies at the...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) awarded a $810,001 project grant to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to study the role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modifications in regulating plant gene expression and response to bacterial pathogens. The 4-year project aims to characterize the addition and removal of m6A on plant RNAs and investigate how these epitranscriptomic processes impact a plant's ability to recognize and respond to...
This three-year National Science Foundation Project Grant of $1.4 million supports research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to characterize mutant strains of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae that are unable to properly maintain the biotrophic interface or membrane integrity during growth in host plant cells. The goal is to uncover novel cellular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms governing rice infection. Results may provide insights into fundamental concepts of plant-microbe...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), supports collaborative research at North Dakota State University (NDSU) to study the relationship between legumes (such as soybeans, peas, and alfalfa) and rhizobia bacteria. The $265,001 project, running from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2026, aims to identify the plant and bacterial genes that work together to control the efficiency of nitrogen fixation in this symbiotic...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $750,000 to the University of Missouri System from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2026. The grant supports collaborative research among multiple institutions to elucidate the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying nonhost resistance in plants. Nonhost resistance confers broad immunity to most plant species against pathogens that can infect other species. The research aims to...
This $275,000 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the CFDA program titled "NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships" aims to develop a targeted biological pesticide for controlling Pythium pathogens in hydroponic greenhouse production of leafy greens. The project will assemble a collection of diverse Pythium pathogen isolates, evaluate 10 Pseudomonad biocontrol strains, and identify the genetic basis for their host-specific killing ability to...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant under the CFDA program "Biological Sciences" (47.074) is awarded to Trustees of Boston University to develop and optimize optogenetic tools for selecting bacterial cells based on dynamic, time-varying traits. The $796,158 award, effective August 1, 2023 through July 31, 2026, supports the researchers in creating light-inducible genetic constructs that trigger antibiotic resistance, enabling the isolation of bacteria exhibiting...
This $851,545 project grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) with a start date of September 1, 2024 and an expected completion date of August 31, 2027. The grant supports research to understand the mechanisms by which beneficial bacteria in the plant microbiome interact with and modulate the plant immune system. Key objectives include investigating how a common...
This Project Grant award of $849,999 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI, CFDA 10.310) supports research to understand how the plant immune system regulates assembly of the leaf microbiome and how the microbiome modulates plant health and resistance to pathogens, using rice and bacterial blight as a model system. Key objectives include identifying rice genes that influence leaf microbiome assembly during disease...