Biotech Updates

US Funding for Plant Genome Projects Reaches All-Time High

February 5, 2010

Funding for plant genome research in the US has reached an all time high, according to an article published by Nature Biotechnology. In 2009, the National Science Foundation (NSF) doled out USD 101.6 million to 32 plant genome research projects focusing on "economically important crop plants" ranging from West African cultivated rice to poplar trees. These projects, the NSF said, will better define plant responses to changing environments and contribute to understanding of genetic processes in economically important plants. The project led by the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research/USDA-ARS to complete the sequence of the tomato genome received the largest award, worth more than $10.4 million over four years.

Read the original story at http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v28/n1/full/nbt0110-10b.html