Leveraging genetic and biochemical approaches with JGI contributions, researchers aim to better understand the metabolic diversity of sorghum and maize, how that metabolic diversity is generated, and how specific metabolites and pathways mediate plant interactions with the microbial community. Together these resources and knowledge are anticipated to guide development of next generation Poaceous fuel crops with optimized microbiome interactions and enhanced tolerance of abiotic and biotic stresses.
Proposer: Alisa Huffaker, University of California, San Diego
Proposal: Systems analysis of secondary-metabolism-mediated microbial community interactions in sorghum and maize enabled by comparative metabolomic and transcriptomic genome-wide association studies