St. Louis, Missouri, USA
October 21, 2009
Projects looking to improve our understanding of corn genetics benefitted from the receipt of additional funding this week. The National Science Foundation made 32 new awards totaling $101.6 million during the 12th year of its Plant Genome Research Program. The National Corn Growers Association and its state affiliates were a driving force in the creation of this genome research program.
"We are on this trend line where the average yield will increase to 300 bushels per acre by 2030, even though in 2009 we are only in the 160s," said NCGA Research and Business Development Action Team Chair Larry Hasheider of Okawville, Ill. "We need this type of genome technology to improve yields, make our plants more resistant to disease and decrease the chemicals that we use. This funding is a very positive development for the future of our nation's 300,000 corn farmers."
Seven of the NSF's new round of grants in the Plant Genome Research Program went to projects with a focus on corn, for a total of approximately $27.8 million, or roughly 27 percent of the total funding awarded. A project looking at the relationship of genotype and phenotype in corn received significant support with a nearly $10 million award. The other projects funded include studies looking at next-generation sequencing technologies for corn, improvement and annotation of the current maize genome sequence and the use of proteogenomics to discover and validate genes.
While corn received a larger share of the award than any other single crop, many groups and projects will benefit. Other crops receiving funding included tomatoes, the Compositae family (sunflower, safflower and lettuce), papaya, rice, soy, cotton, switchgrass and tree species.
In addition, this year the NSF awarded approximately $3.5 million in Heterosis Challenge Grants, aimed at identifying the underlying cause of hybrid vigor. Of the seven awards, four $500,000 awards two go to work on corn, two to rice and one to tomatoes.
RELATED RELEASE
U.S. National Science Foundation awards 32 new projects for plant genome research - Projects will better define plant responses to changing environments and contribute to our understanding of genetic processes in economically important plants
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