ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- The University of Georgia has been awarded $2 million in federal money for projects aiming to drive more efficient biofuels production and feedstock improvements.
The U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy on Wednesday announced $10 million for eight research projects.
UGA was awarded $500,000 to use a genetic analysis of biomass to identify the plant architecture that is important for optimized biomass production in a range of environments.
A second award of $1.5 million will be used for a project to determine how protein levels affect biomass development and water use in woody plants.
Since 2006, the Plant Feedstocks Genomics for Bioenergy research program has invested nearly $70 million helping to identify key genes affecting biomass yield and quality in feedstocks and to accelerate breeding efforts to improve bioenergy-relevant traits.