NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana will use $1.3 million from the US Department of Agriculture — through funding from the recently signed Fiscal Year 2009 budget — for agriculture genomics projects, according to Senator Richard Durbin (D - Ill.).
Under the grants, provided through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, the university will use $745,000 to study soybean genomics and $564,000 for livestock genome sequencing projects, Durbin said in a press statement last week.
The soybean project will use genomics and genetic engineering in studies of drought resistance, disease tolerance, and resistance to soybean cyst nematode and soybean rust.
The livestock genome sequencing project will aim to identify every gene of the cattle and swine species, and establish a database to identify the functions of their genes.