Project Grant 2514689
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant award of $944,832 to The Trustees of Princeton University will investigate how the composition and characteristics of root-associated microbial communities shape plant development and health. The project aims to identify bacterial strains that, when assembled into communities, can promote plant growth and help protect against disease. This work will support the development of beneficial microbial products to...
- This Project Grant award of $1,066,082 from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program will support research to enhance the understanding of mechanisms that allow beneficial bacteria to successfully colonize plants and exclude pathogens. The project will use synthetic microbial communities and advanced genetic and genomic approaches to identify the molecular, ecological, genetic, and genomic factors that facilitate or prevent microbial community invasion. The...
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Federal Grant Program awarded the University of Wisconsin System a $345,312 project grant on June 15, 2025 to assess the drivers of the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between plants and bacteria across North America. The project will investigate the diversity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and other microbes associating with plant roots using data from the NSF-sponsored National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Researchers...
- The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a 4-year, $191,371 Project Grant to the University of Florida to conduct research on the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between plants and bacteria. This grant is funded through the NSF Division of Biological Sciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program. The key objectives of this project are to: 1) provide a data-intensive framework to understand how plants and bacteria form nitrogen-fixing partnerships and...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) federal Project Grant award of $1,180,492 to the University of Pennsylvania will fund research to investigate how beneficial microbes affect the evolution of plant defense traits. The project aims to determine how genetic variation in microbial symbionts influences heritable variation in host plant defense characteristics, such as leaf hairs that protect against insect damage. Additionally, the project will train...
- This $699,903 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program aims to study how microbial activity in the root zone of the crop plant sorghum impacts the plant's ability to grow and utilize nitrogen. The goal is to elucidate the role of homoserine lactone-mediated interbacterial signaling in shaping the rhizosphere microbial community structure and function to support plant growth and health. This 3-year project (8/1/2025 -...
- The National Science Foundation awarded a two-year, $138,000 Project Grant to support postdoctoral research titled "From Genomes to Phenomes: The Rules of Life That Govern Bacterial-Fungal-Plant Symbioses." The grant falls under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), which aims to promote progress in the biological sciences and strengthen the nation's scientific enterprise through increased knowledge and understanding of major problems. The grant will fund research from October...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award to The Pennsylvania State University, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), will support research to improve understanding of the symbiotic relationship between legume plants and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria. The $310,000 grant, awarded on September 1, 2023 for a 3-year period, will fund an integrative approach to identify the specific plant and bacterial genes that work together to control the efficiency of...
- This $700,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports a collaborative research project led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to elucidate and manipulate carbon metabolic niches in soil microbiomes for sustainable agriculture. The project aims to understand the molecular and ecological principles governing soil microbiome composition and function, with the goal of developing strategies to reintroduce and...
- 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...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $880,000 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) federal grant program to The Trustees of Princeton University. The grant will fund a research project titled "Synthetic Symbiotes: Engineering Opine-Mediated Plant-Microbe Interactions" that explores a new strategy to improve colonization of beneficial bacteria in plants. The goal is to support a selective association between plants and beneficial bacteria, enabling more reliable delivery of microbial benefits in agricultural settings. The project will investigate the genetic requirements for opine utilization in plant-beneficial bacteria, characterize the enzymes that synthesize opines in plants, and evaluate how these traits affect microbial colonization and persistence. This research aims to reveal how specific associations between opine-producing plants and opine-catabolizing microbes can be designed to improve the delivery of beneficial bacteria to plants, supporting the development of more reliable and predictable microbial technologies in agriculture. The project will also provide training for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as engage K-12 students and local elementary teachers through science outreach activities.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $880.0k | 8/4/25 |