A consortium of scientists received a $20 million grant from the National
Science Foundation to investigate the effects of climate variability on
crops. The consortium includes research teams from the University of
Missouri campuses at Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis, as well as
Washington University, Saint Louis University, Lincoln University, the St.
Louis Science Center, and the Danforth Plant Science Center.

The team from Danforth Center will work on the genomes of corn to improve
drought tolerance and water-efficiency. According to Danforth plant
scientist Todd Mockler, the main objective of their study is to understand
how roots contribute to drought tolerance and pinpoint which genetic traits
are in charge of the water-efficient characteristics. They will also study
how shoots, leaves, flowers, and other structures respond to drought.

On the other hand, Danforth's bioinformatics expert, Doug Bryant, will work
on developing tools that will handle and analyze big data on humidity, soil
temperature, plant growth and more, with some of the imaging data coming
from drones. His team's end goal is to develop models that can help farmers
predict yields and other outcomes with as much precision as possible.


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