Crop research seeks higher yield numbers, new markets

Researchers are at work developing improved corn and soybeans, aiming for higher yields while also addressing disease and weed challenges the crops face.

In addition, they work to develop new traits in crops to help build new markets.

At the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in the St. Louis area, researchers work on various crop production and quality projects. Principal investigator Doug Allen said the center conducts a variety of studies.

“Our lab is studying the processes by which important components of soybeans, including oil and protein, are made,” he said. “We are learning that sometimes when we engineer seed to make more of what we value, like oil, that seed may, counterproductively, break down the oil, reducing the impact of our efforts. Thus, we are developing ways to prevent the plant from circumventing our efforts and to produce better beans.”

Some of the same mechanisms have resulted in changes in seed size without affecting the seed number per plant, he said. These discoveries have implications for overall yield.

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