AI and genetics can help farmers grow corn with less fertilizer

Added on 15 May 2025

Tags

AI and genetics can help farmers grow corn with less fertilizer

Image by freepik

New York University scientists are using artificial intelligence to determine which genes collectively govern nitrogen use efficiency in plants such as corn, with the goal of helping farmers improve their crop yields and minimize the cost of nitrogen fertilizers.

"By identifying genes-of-importance to nitrogen utilization, we can select for or even modify certain genes to enhance nitrogen use efficiency in major US crops like corn," said Gloria Coruzzi, the Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor in NYU's Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and the senior author of the study, which appears in the journal The Plant Cell.