The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of technologies capable of increasing the crop yield and growth efficiency of certain high-value commodity crops. By capitalizing on the high price of arable land and the inherent inefficiencies in producing certain strains of crops at the genetic level, this technology enables farmers to produce larger volumes of valuable foodstuffs by optimizing the quality of the materials they plant. Markedly increasing the production efficiency of certain crops, such as corn, avocados, and peanuts, increases the sellable volume of these products, and their derivatives, including high value edible oils, edible matter, and biomass for biofuel conversion.
This I-Corps project is based on the development of biological toolkits that enable agriculturalists to selectively screen planting materials for qualities that are most compatible with the environment in which they are grown. Crucial to this technology is the development of accurate and fast-acting tools for the identification of pertinent genetic features that dictate crop-environment compatibility. Such features include drought resistance, diseases resistance, pest-resilience, crop height, and future crop yield. Research into the roles that individual and/or groups of genes play in the manifestation of these macroscopic traits has enabled the development of plant-specific assays identifying those qualities most relevant for the productive cultivation of crops and produce. Efficacy testing has proven promising in the lab and plans to expand to larger field trials are on the horizon.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
