BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS IN FOOD, FEED AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PRODUCTION

To date biotechnology has been utilized to maximize the efficacy of agricultural food, feed and animal production by way of improvement upon productivity. Aspects of agricultural biotechnology improves upon the nutritional value of food and feed of consumption and subsequent textiles. Biotechnological assessments also enhance our ability to detect, treat and prevent diseases. As for animal production, biotechnology plays an important role to improve productivity, consistency, and quality; to introduce new food, fiber, and medical products; and to protect the environment. To that end land grant institutions must engage in the development and establishment of sound up-to-date research programs in biotechnological sciences to obtain the information needed for implementation of the relevant changes in the agricultural industry and molecular advancements to agriculture overall. In this proposal, researchers propose to increase the production of sweetpotato with value-added traits and to improve the efficacy of beef cattle production by using biotechnological approaches. Specically, this project aims at1) Improvingexperiential learning in crop biotechnology by generating non-GMO sweetpotato via CRISPR/Cas9 targeted mutagenesis for overexpression of sweetpotato NF-YC4 to increase protein levels in sweetpotato roots.2) Developing genome-edited sweetpotato with reduced PPO activity.3) Identifying the role(s) of progesterone on regulating endometrial transcriptome and conceptus expression in cattle.