Danforth Center Scientist Leads New Department Of Energy Grant To Unlock The Secrets Of Sorghum Photosynthesis

DOE-funded project brings together plant biologists, imaging specialists, and AI experts to engineer more productive, stress-resilient bioenergy crops

A new five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research will fund a multi-institutional effort to improve how sorghum captures and manages energy through photosynthesis. The $5.7M project is led by Dr. Ru Zhang, Associate Member and Principal Investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

The Danforth Center was founded on the premise that fundamental plant science — understanding how plants grow, adapt, and produce energy — is essential to addressing global challenges in food, fuel, and climate. This project takes that premise into the field: by uncovering why sorghum, one of the world's most important bioenergy feedstocks, loses productivity under heat, drought, and fluctuating light, the team aims to generate knowledge that can be translated directly into more resilient, higher-yielding crops.

At the heart of the challenge is photosynthesis, the process by which sorghum converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugars. This process depends on precise coordination between two distinct leaf cell types: mesophyll and bundle sheath cells. Under stress, that coordination is compromised — and a key hypothesis driving the research is that leaves exposed to high levels of light accumulate excess sugar faster than it can be transported to the rest of the plant, triggering a feedback loop that suppresses photosynthesis, especially during full sunlight conditions in the field.

“Sorghum has remarkable potential as a bioenergy crop, but we still don't fully understand the molecular and cellular rules governing how it manages photosynthesis under challenging field conditions and distributes the sugars its leaves make," said Dr. Zhang. "This project lets us dig into those mechanisms at a systems level — combining field physiology, cell-type-specific molecular analyses, advanced 3D imaging, and AI-driven modeling — so we can identify the precise points to intervene and design plants that are genuinely smarter about regulating photosynthesis and carbon distribution under stress.”

Dr. Zhang assembled co-investigators whose expertise spans the full scope of the research: Dr. Tessa Burch-Smith (Danforth Center) on cell-to-cell communication; Dr. Xuehua Zhong (Washington University in St. Louis) on epigenomics; Dr. David Braun (University of Missouri) on carbohydrate partitioning; Dr. Jianlin (Jack) Cheng (University of Missouri) on AI and machine learning; and Dr. Shu-ou Shan (California Institute of Technology) on chaperon proteins with roles in photosynthesis. Field experiments will be conducted at the Danforth Center’s Field Research Site in St. Charles, Missouri. Laboratory analyses will be distributed across partner institutions according to each team’s specialized expertise, with all data ultimately integrated through AI and machine learning.

“Ru’s project is the Danforth Center vision in action — rigorous, collaborative, and consequential,” said Dr. Giles Oldroyd, president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. “By decoding how sorghum photosynthesizes under real-world stress, this team is laying the scientific foundation for crops that can thrive as our weather grows more unpredictable. That is mission-critical work, and we are proud that it is happening here.”

While focused on sorghum, the insights generated are expected to transfer broadly to similar crops such as maize and sugarcane, and to inform photosynthesis improvement in different kinds of crops such as wheat and rice.

About The Danforth Center
Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is the largest independent nonprofit dedicated to plant science in the world. With a mission to improve the human condition through plant science, the Center conducts plant science research to feed people and improve human health, preserve and renew the environment, and innovate for economic development in the US and around the world. For more information, visit danforthcenter.org