PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (January 22, 2026) — As drought conditions intensify across Texas and agricultural regions worldwide, a Prairie View A&M University researcher has secured federal funding to study how plant growth patterns can be optimized to improve crop resilience and productivity.
Tesfamichael Kebrom, Ph.D., a research scientist in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Research at Prairie View A&M University, has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to investigate the role of plant branching in drought tolerance and yield efficiency.
The project focuses on shoot branching, also known as tillering, in major crops such as corn, wheat, sorghum and rice. Branch number plays a critical role in plant architecture and yield potential. In many crops, excessive branching leads to inefficient use of water and nutrients when branches fail to produce grain. By examining the physiological and genetic mechanisms that regulate branching, the research aims to inform strategies that optimize plant structure, improve resource efficiency and enhance crop productivity under drought conditions.
The USDA/NIFA-funded project, titled “Unraveling Reduced Tillering in Drought-Tolerant Stay-Green Sorghum for Enhanced Crop Resilience,” will examine how reduced branching contributes to drought tolerance in sorghum, a crop widely used as a model system for drought research.
Tesfamichael Kebrom, Ph.D.
Sorghum is known for its exceptional ability to withstand water stress and is often referred to as the “camel crop.” Within sorghum, researchers have identified highly resilient “stay-green” genotypes that maintain green leaf area and continue photosynthesis during drought. Recent research by teams at Texas A&M University and in Australia has identified reduced branch number as a key factor contributing to this enhanced drought tolerance. Building on these findings, the project will investigate whether the physiological and genetic mechanisms controlling reduced branching also contribute to drought resilience or whether reduced branching alone lowers plant water demand.
The research effort brings together a multidisciplinary team spanning agriculture, engineering and computational biology. Seungchan Kim, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering in the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering and director of the Center for Computational Systems Biology, will serve as co-principal investigator and lead gene expression data analysis. Sela Woldesenbet, DVM, manager of the core laboratories at CAFNR Research, will also serve as co-principal investigator and support plant sample analyses using core laboratory equipment.
In addition to advancing scientific understanding, the project will provide hands-on research training for one graduate student and several undergraduate students, supporting workforce development in plant physiology, genomics and crop improvement.
This research aligns with the Vision of Excellence in Research at CAFNR Research, the USDA-NIFA Plan of Work, and Prairie View A&M University’s Journey to Eminence, reinforcing the university’s commitment to federally competitive research that addresses global challenges in agriculture, sustainability and food security.
By Joe McGinty, with contributions from Tesfamichael Kebrom, Ph.D., and Erdogan Memili, Ph.D.