This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses the need for crops with increased yield. Yield is directly related to nitrogen (N) utilization and is dramatically affected by climate. Plant Sensory Systems has developed a genetic modification to plants that increases their N use efficiency (NUE) and tolerance to drought and high temperatures. The modification is the insertion of a novel pathway for making gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in plants. Phase I research demonstrated that the genetically modified model plants were more drought- and heat tolerant and had higher yield in both N-limited and N-sufficient conditions compared to wildtype plants. In Phase II the gene construct will be tested in a crop plant to demonstrate commercial feasibility. Agronomic performance in N- and water-limited and sufficient conditions will be determined in homozygote corn lines.
The broader impacts of this research are the stabilization of the agronomic sector of the economy and a reduction in adverse effects of agriculture on the environment. The innovation would lead to crops with higher yields that cost less to produce. The need for less N fertilizer would reduce costs to the growers and have significant environmental savings by reducing the amount of N that runs into the watershed. Moreover, a reduction in fertilizer production and application would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The innovation confers tolerance to climate changes, which would also reduce crop-production costs and increase yield. The proposed technology has great commercial potential in a market actively seeking increased NUE and value-added traits.
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project addressed the need to increase agricultural productivity. The global population is increasing at an accelerating rate, and yet at the same time land availability for agricultural use is decreasing as a result of urban sprawl and the diversion of land use for biofuel production. Increased fertilizer use is the main reason for the significant increase in crop yield over the last few decades. It is estimated that 30-50% of the growth can be attributed to nitrogen (N) fertilizer use. However, fertilizer use has high economic and environmental costs. N-fertilizer cost is directly tied to the price of natural gas and has increased substantially due to increasing fuel costs. Fertilizer is the largest single operating expense for growers of corn and wheat and a significant pollutant of water and air. Estimates of the overall efficiency of the main compounds of applied fertilizer are 50% for nitrogen (N), 10% for phosphorous (P), and 40% for potassium (K). The unutilized nutrients, specifically N and P, run off into rivers, lakes, streams, and bays causing algae blooms, which ultimately decrease the oxygen in the water creating dead zones. Plant Sensory Systems has developed a genetic modification to plants (referred to as the NUEST technology) that allows plants to utilize nutrients more efficiently and, as such, less fertilizer is required to maintain or increase yields. Thus, crop-production costs could be significantly reduced and the loss of nutrients to the environment minimized. The NUEST technology also confers water-use efficiency and increased tolerance to drought and heat, which would also reduce crop-production costs and increase yield. Over the next 20 years, global annual crop loss is expected to increase 10% due to anticipated global warming. As a result, crop production in food-insecure nations is expected to decrease. Also, as the population increases, pressures on water use also increase. It is estimated that by 2025, world requirements for water development will increase 57%. Analysts agree that water use will become a critical factor in the near future for geo-political stability since currently 70% of water consumption worldwide is for agricultural purposes, mainly crop irrigation. Rising fuel prices have been a major factor in making the development of traits associated with nitrogen use efficiency one of the fastest growing markets in the agribusiness sector. Moreover, the savings associated with decreasing fertilizer use is tangible (less fertilizer decreases crop-production costs), and as such, the cost of the technology can be readily incorporated into the sale of the seeds. Market analysts agree that the next round of genetically modified crops will need to maximize the number of desired traits in one crop. The NUEST technology is the most cost- and time-efficient way to obtain the multiple traits of increased nitrogen use efficiency and increased tolerance to drought and high temperature.
