Researching crops that grow in adversity  

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $503,000 grant for research in climate-smart crops to Manohar Chakrabarti, an assistant professor of Plant Functional Genomics in the UTRGV School of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences.

Chakrabarti’s research has the goal of enhancing agricultural sustainability. He started the three-year research project in January. 

Bianca Garner, program director in the cluster for Systems and Synthetic Biology within the division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the National Science Foundation, said Chakrabarti applied to the “Building Research Capacity for New Faculty in Biology” program.

“The grant really has three main goals, and that’s to support new faculty who are in their early career stages to help them become really established so that they can build research capacity and then to help support students,” Garner said. 

She said grant reviewers look for “strong intellectual merit” and the research question has to be grounded in fundamental science. 

“There also has to be broader impacts, so some type of engagement that goes beyond just the benchtop, and then finally the capacity building,” Garner said. 

She said recipients like Chakrabarti “check all those boxes” for the grant. 

Chakrabarti said the title of his research is “Deciphering the roles of RNA Modifications in Regulating Responses to Abiotic Stresses in Cereal Crops.”

He is using sorghum as the model cereal crop because “compared to other grain crops, sorghum is quite tolerant to stresses,” he said. 

“So the whole logic is like if you can identify the reason for sorghum stress resilience, then you can compare it in future with other stress-susceptible cereal crops like corn or rice,” Chakrabarti said. “And then you can use this information for further improvement of those crops.”

Vivian Incera, dean of the College of Sciences, said the research Chakrabarti is conducting is “fascinating.” 

“And I also think we are very lucky to have a professor like Dr. Chakrabarti here,” Incera said. 

She said the assistant professor joined UTRGV in Fall 2022 after he finished with his doctorate and postdoctoral research.

“So all that experience, all that modern research approaches that he uses will benefit every single student that interacts with him, not only in the lab but also in the classes,” the dean said. 

Garner said Chakrabarti’s research question also has implications with “bioeconomy.” 

“And that’s using science to, sort of, drive processes that not only impact life, but also impact the economy,” she said. “And he has some really nice broader impacts that include the training of students.” 

The Rider asked Chakrabarti how the funds would be used. 

He replied the majority of the funds will go toward conducting research. 

“And then we also have a type of education component or training component,” Chakrabarti said. 

He plans to train different levels of students and postdoctoral researchers in his research. 

“So, the undergraduate and graduate students will be from UTRGV, but for the high school interns, they are like … from the region, from the area,” he said. 

Chakrabarti said there will be scholarships for graduate and undergraduate students and the postdoctoral researcher will receive a salary.

He said it is “satisfying” to get the grant and also very “exciting.” 

“So you need funding support to do what you want, so being able to receive funding from federal agencies to support our research program, that really strengthened our program,” Chakrabarti said. 

He said being part of this research will benefit students because “it’s pretty important to know what is going on in the field.”

“They will get a broad spectrum training on molecular biology, biotechnology, genomics and also scientific communication,” Chakrabarti said. 

The Rider asked how the research impacts the Rio Grande Valley community. 

Chakrabarti said the project is directly related to climate change because “we are looking at our responses to two major climate-change scenarios like drought and heat.”

He said it is related to what is happening in the Valley and other parts of the world. 

“Another important thing is that sorghum is grown in this area, so it’s locally relevant, too,” Chakrabarti said. 

Incera said this type of research is needed to figure out how to survive and produce food.

“The summers are very, very hot and longer,” she said. “Even in the winter, we have days that do not look like winter.”

Garner said that anything learned about the molecular mechanism of plants has a long-term impact on agriculture. 

“So even though it’s one small area, what we call the tractability, like what else can be impacted, is very large in his research,” she said. 

Incera encourages students to reach out to faculty “so they can take advantage of these great research opportunities we are offering.”

Garner encourages young people to get involved with science early and often. 

“I think that research like Dr. Chakrabarti’s should open up an area and show you that science doesn’t have to be boring,” she said. 

Chakrabarti is looking for undergraduates and graduate students from engineering, mathematics, statistics or biology to hire for next semester. 

There will be advertisements throughout UTRGV for the positions. For more information, email manohar.chakrabarti@utrgv.edu.