Plant Breeding to Increase Agro-Biodiversity and Crop Climate Resilience

2023 Faculty Research Award

AWARD PERIOD: 2023-2025

Jonathan Conway, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, leads this project to grow and analyze two commercially important crops, okra and collard greens. He is assisted by Tessa Desmond, a research specialist in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. The goal is to develop improved strands of these plant populations for sustainable and climate resistant agriculture. The focus on okra, specifically, seeks to develop a variety that has a high seed oil content—more than 30 percent—to make growing okra as a commodity crop more economically feasible for farmers looking for alternatives to high-input crops. Researchers are also collaborating with two community organizations, the Utopian Seed Project of North Carolina, which is assisting with the high-oil-content breeding, and the Heirloom Collard Project, which is developing a regionally adapted variety of collard greens and assessing root microbiome diversity in field sites.

The project supports research opportunities for four Princeton undergraduates. The researchers engage in plant breeding work, investigate questions about the plant microbiome’s role in crop resilience, and train undergraduate students in observation of biodiversity, plant breeding, lab research, and sustainable agriculture.

 

Participating Departments

 

Faculty

Jonathan Conway
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research Associates

  • Tessa Desmond, Research Specialist, School of Public and International Affairs