An Illinois professor is part of a multi-institutional research project that has received a 5-year, $16 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to work with sorghum in an effort to optimize photosynthesis and water use efficiency.

Andrew Leakey, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and an affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, is part of the project, based at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, that will expand upon earlier research on green foxtail grass (Setaria viridis) to identify new genes and pathways that contribute to photosynthesis and enhanced water use efficiency. Sorghum, a grass grown worldwide, is a particularly ideal crop to research for solar energy conversion and use of water.