RII Track-2 FEC: Genome Engineering to Sustain Crop Improvement (GETSCI)
Improved and practical crop breeding tools are required to meet the increasing demands of a growing global population and to overcome the sudden and variable stresses, made worse, by climate change. This project brings together researchers from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and Iowa State University to develop an efficient, robust genome engineering toolkit that can be used to speed the generation of resilient crops adapted to a changing environment. Reproductive barriers are a major bottleneck that limits the genetic diversity available for crop improvement.
Iowa State University scientists are leading an effort to improve efficiency and genetics in organic corn production, a fast-growing sector of the agricultural world since the beginning of 2020.
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Scientists have invested great time and effort into making connections between a plant’s genotype, or its genetic makeup, and its phenotype, or the plant’s observable traits. Understanding a plant’s genome helps plant biologists predict how that plant will perform in the real world, which can be useful for breeding crop varieties that will produce high yields or resist stress.