The National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers awarded Syracuse University $351,911 on January 1, 2027, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to develop a comprehensive toolkit of cell-type-specific promoters for manipulating gene expression in wood-forming tissues of poplar trees.
The project will generate molecular tools enabling researchers to precisely control where genes are active within the wood-forming zone, accelerating discovery of how individual wood cell types develop and function. The toolkit will support engineering of trees with improved properties for biofuels, paper production, and carbon storage, and will be freely shared with the plant science community. The work addresses a long-standing bottleneck in tree biotechnology: the inability to modify wood properties such as lignin content or vessel wall composition without triggering unintended growth penalties or off-target effects. The project leverages recent advances in single-nucleus RNA sequencing to systematically identify, validate, and characterize promoters and cis-regulatory elements with cell-type-specific activity patterns.
Performance occurs at Syracuse University's location in Syracuse, New York. The award period extends from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2029. This is a Project Grant, the standard NSF assistance type for individual investigator-led research in the biological sciences.