The University of Georgia has been awarded $2 million in federal money for projects aiming to drive more efficient biofuels production and feedstock improvements. (Photo Courtesy of Herman Brinkman via stock.xchng.)
The U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy Wednesday announced $10 million for eight research projects.
UGA was awarded $500,000 to use a genetic analysis of biomass to identify the plant architecture that is important for optimized biomass production in a range of environments.
A second award of $1.5 million will be used for a project to determine how protein levels affect biomass development and water use in woody plants.
Since 2006, the Plant Feedstocks Genomics for Bioenergy research program has invested nearly $70 million helping to identify key genes affecting biomass yield and quality in feedstocks and to accelerate breeding efforts to improve bioenergy-relevant traits.
