DOE Awards $1.3 Million Grant to Study Beneficial Links Between Biofuel Sorghum and Fungus

(AZO Cleantech) For years, researchers have been trying to harness the crop-growing benefits of the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), for example, can deliver water and nutrients to the roots of plants like sorghum, a grain used to produce biofuels.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is particularly interested in producing sorghum more efficiently to reduce the need for irrigation and fertilizer, and recently awarded Regents' Professor Nancy Johnson of Northern Arizona University's School of Earth and Sustainability a $1.3 million grant to study the beneficial associations between biofuel sorghum and AMF.

Johnson's research is part of a five-year collaboration with the University of Georgia, funded by a total of $11.7 million from the DOE, which will involve genetic sequencing and artificial intelligence. A series of field and greenhouse experiments will examine the genetic and environmental factors that cause the variable performance of mycorrhizal symbioses in field conditions.

The researchers will be growing more than 350 different genotypes of sorghum at agricultural experiment stations in Maricopa, Arizona and near Athens, Georgia to examine how sorghum genetics are interacting with AMF and other organisms in their microbiome. READ MORE