MSU tackles climate change threats to soybean production through collaborative $6M NSF grant

Contact: Vanessa Beeson

STARKVILLE, Miss.-Mississippi State University scientists are collaborating on a $6 million National Science Foundation research project to ensure sustainable soybean yields despite rising temperatures and increasing drought.

Climate change significantly threatens agriculture, with extreme heat and drought potentially reducing soybean yields by up to 40% in the next 25 years. The interdisciplinary Program of Advancing Climate Extreme Resilience in Soybeans, or iPACERS, also includes Clemson University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and aims to build soybean resilience against these challenges.

Funded by an Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, grant from the NSF, the team will explore all aspects of the soybean from the single cell to the whole plant and its surrounding microbial communities and soil. Using artificial intelligence, the team will integrate data to identify novel RNA markers and beneficial microbes, which then will be evaluated for their roles in developing a more resilient soybean variety.

Nuwan Wijewardane, assistant professor in MSU's Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, leads the MSU team, focusing on the above-ground aspects of the plant by recording environmental conditions and capturing plant phenotypes via unmanned aerial and ground vehicles.

"We're assessing the soybean at the whole plant level. We will use proximal and remote sensing technologies for soybean phenotyping under heat and drought conditions, which means we will determine what exactly these stressors are doing to the plant as a whole," said Wijewardane, who is also a scientist in the university's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. "Additionally, this grant empowers us to build technological capabilities and infrastructure within Mississippi State University to increase our phenotyping capabilities so this work will extend beyond this initial project."

Other MSU faculty involved in the project include Assistant Professors Xin Zhang, Raju Bheemanahalli Rangappa and Nesma Osman and Associate Extension Professor Mary Love Tagert.

Shadid Mukhtar, Clemson University professor and the project's principal investigator, noted MSU's potential to provide meaningful data in determining the plant's response to climate stressors.

"I'm excited to lead iPACERS, an interdisciplinary team addressing climate-related challenges to soybeans. The MSU team comprises experts in diverse disciplines, including plant stress biology, proximal and spectroscopic sensing, computer vision and agricultural robotics, as well as UAV and UGV-based field sensing," he said.

Mukhtar emphasized that diverse expertise is critical for understanding spatial phenotypic changes in soybeans under field conditions. He plans to employ artificial intelligence to integrate field data with single-cell data generated in his lab.

"MSU's role is crucial in providing a mechanistic understanding of soybean's response to heat and drought, bridging the gap from single-cell analysis to field-based phenomics."

The iPACERS project also is committed to fostering a diverse STEM workforce in the Southeast through its extension and outreach component. This initiative aims to educate the public on climate change and its critical impact on food security.

The university's Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, at the forefront of this pioneering research, works alongside other leading institutions to develop solutions to ensure a sustainable food supply amidst climate change. Learn more at www.mafes.msstate.edu.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.

Tuesday, July 23, 2024 - 9:45 am