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Future drought will offset benefits of higher CO2 on soybean yields

June 9, 2016

An eight-year study of soybeans grown outdoors in a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere like that expected by 2050 has yielded a new and worrisome finding: Higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations will boost plant growth under ideal growing conditions, but drought – expected to worsen as the climate warms and rainfall patterns change – will outweigh those benefits and cause yield losses much sooner than anticipated.


June 9, 2016


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Illinois awarded $5M to increase water use efficiency in bioenergy sorghum

December 11, 2015

The University of Illinois has been awarded a 3-year, $5 million grant from the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy as part of its OPEN 2015 funding initiative (ARPA-E OPEN). Under Principal Investigator Andrew Leakey, Associate Professor of Plant Biology, the interdisciplinary and multi-institutional team intends to increase the water use efficiency (WUE) of sorghum, a valuable bioenergy crop.


December 11, 2015


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Another Successful Year for the IGB Summer Camp, Pollen Power!

July 20, 2014

For many people, the word “pollen” evokes only the idea of a springtime allergenic nuisance.  For one group of middle school girls, though, pollen is now a symbol of summertime fun and learning.  Twenty-six girls from around East Central Illinois came to participate in Pollen Power!, a week-long science day camp hosted July 7-11 by the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.


July 20, 2014


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As CO2 levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall

May 6, 2014

As CO2 levels rise, some crop nutrients will fall

Researchers have some bad news for future farmers and eaters: As carbon dioxide levels rise this century, some grains and legumes will become significantly less nutritious than they are today.

The new findings are reported in the journal Nature. Eight institutions, from Australia, Israel, Japan and the United States, contributed to the analysis.


May 6, 2014


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Illinois Hosts International Symposium on Photosynthesis

August 19, 2013

International Symposium on Photosynthesis Addresses Food Security

Plant scientists believe specialized photosynthetic traits are key to producing more food and fuel.

The ability to sustainably feed a growing worldwide population may be partly dependent on understanding two types of plants that photosynthesize more efficiently than most.


August 19, 2013


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Improving Drought-Resistance of Biofuel Grasses

July 23, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a five-year, $12.1 million grant to a multi-institutional effort to develop drought-resistant grasses for use in biofuels. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis will lead the initiative with researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Minnesota and Washington State University.


July 23, 2012


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IGB faculty member selected as Beckman Fellow, Center for Advanced Study

August 22, 2011

Andrew Leakey, a member of the Genomic Ecology of Global Change theme at IGB, was recently selected as a Beckman Fellow, Center for Advanced Study.  Leakey’s proposal, “Opening the Black Box of Plant Responses to Global Environmental Change with Genomic Tools”, deals with global environmental change in this century and the impact on growing conditions in farmers' fields and crop yields.


August 22, 2011


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