Mohammad Rahman
Alabama State University, AL·Plant Science & Agriculture
Crops need nitrogen fertilizer to grow well, but plants take up only a fraction of what farmers apply. The rest is lost to the environment, where it raises costs and pollutes water and air.
- Fields
Plant Science & Agriculture
Genetics
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
quinoa
nitrogen use efficiency
low nitrogen tolerance
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Screen diverse quinoa genotypes under contrasting nitrogen conditions to identify varieties that stay productive with reduced nitrogen fertilizer.
- Compare tolerant and susceptible quinoa genotypes using physiological, transcriptomic (gene activity) and metabolomic (small-molecule) profiling to find genes, gene networks and pathways tied to low-nitrogen tolerance.
- Functionally validate candidate tolerance genes in a model plant using genetic transformation and complementation, in which a gene is added back to test whether it restores the trait.
- Identify soil microbial communities associated with improved nitrogen use efficiency and integrate microbiome data with gene activity and metabolite data.
More about the research
Crops that stay productive on less nitrogen, especially with help from beneficial soil microbes, could reduce both problems. This project studies these questions in quinoa, a highly nutritious, genetically diverse grain-like crop.
Why it matters
Reducing nitrogen fertilizer use without losing yield could lower farmers' costs and cut nitrogen pollution of water and air. Tolerant quinoa varieties, candidate genes for crop improvement and beneficial soil microbes identified here could support breeding and sustainable farming practices that maintain crop productivity with fewer fertilizer inputs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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Liana Burghardt
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The school
Alabama State University: 2 labs on PI Pages, $4M a year on research, 7 research doctorates a year.
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