Location: Plant Genetics Research
Project Number: 5070-21220-046-020-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 3, 2026
End Date: Jun 2, 2028
Objective:
The overall objective of the Circular Economy that Reimagines Corn Agriculture (CERCA) Project is to increase farmer profitability and agricultural efficiency by transforming US grain farmland into a net-negative component of a circular bioeconomy. In CERCA, we will convert maize to an earlier season annual with increased uptake and recycling of nitrogen (N) and improved photosynthesis under colder temperatures due to earlier planting. The specific objectives are 1) to reduce the N content of the grain by reducing protein from ~8% to ~4%, which will reduce the amount of N fertilizer applied and reduce the N content in animal waste, and 2) sift planting dates from early May to early April in the US corn belt by breeding cold tolerant corn allowing it to germinate at 6 degrees C.
Approach:
We will take numerous targeted approaches to reduce protein by examining N transporters in the plant, N sink in the grain, and protein synthesis machinery in the grain. We will also take several untargeted approaches to reducing grain N by screening natural variation and conducting selection for low N. We will improve cold tolerance by screening maize germplasm to identify existing cold tolerance traits such as improved photosynthesis and seedling development under cold conditions. For both the N and cold research areas, we will generate and evaluate transgenic and gene edited materials to test candidate genes involved in N and cold traits.