Display Accessibility Tools

Accessibility Tools

Grayscale

Highlight Links

Change Contrast

Increase Text Size

Increase Letter Spacing

Readability Bar

Dyslexia Friendly Font

Increase Cursor Size

 
Plant Resilience Institute Logo
 

Mission

The mission of the Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) is to enhance plant resilience to environmental challenges including extremes in weather and to become a “Center of Excellence” for foundational and translational plant research aimed at stabilizing the productivity and quality of food and energy crops against climate fluctuations and uncertainties.

Purpose

Climate instability threatens agricultural productivity. Stabilizing crop production will require the development of crops that are more resistant to abiotic and biotic stresses including drought, high temperature, flooding, disease (bacterial, fungal, viral) and insect pests.

People

The PRI includes faculty, postdocs, students, and staff from diverse career stages and disciplines (biochemistry, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, microbiology, and pathology), with expertise in both model and crop species, drought and heat adaptation, plant-microbe and plant-insect interactions, microbial ecology, and genomics.

News

A graphic promoting GLPSC 2025

MSU to Host Inaugural Great Lakes Plant Science Conference

Register for the first Great Lakes Plant Science Conference (GLPSC 2025), a collaborative conference to explore the future of plant science, taking place September 12-14, 2025 in Lansing, Michigan, USA.
Learn More
Christine Sprunger headshot

Sprunger Announced as a 2025 Top Agri-Food Pioneer

Christine Sprunger has been selected by the World Food Prize Foundation as a 2025 Top Agri-food Pioneer! Her work in regenerative agriculture and soil health has transformed sustainable farming systems and positions her as a global leader in agri-food sustainability.
Read More
Tom Sharkey measures the rate of photosynthesis and isoprene being released by a soybean plant.

Some Plants Make Their Own Pesticide–But at What Cost to the Atmosphere?

New research 40 years in the making from Tom Sharkey sheds light on how isoprene could provide a path for engineering plants that are more resilient to environmental change and pest outbreaks. But that benefit could come at an environmental cost.
Read More