East Lansing, MI (July 13, 2021) - We live in a time when it's never been easier or less expensive to sequence a plant's complete genome. But knowing all of a plant's genes is not the same thing as knowing what all those genes do. Michigan State experts in plant biology and computer science plan to close that gap with the help of artificial intelligence and a new $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Ultimately, the goal is to help farmers grow crops with genes that give their plants the best chance to withstand threats such as drought and disease. To get to that point, though, researchers still need to reveal the fundamental role of many of the genes found in plants.

Shiu is a professor in the College of Natural Science's Department of Plant Biology and in Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, a department jointly administered by the College of Natural Science and the College of Engineering. The researchers believe that AI can provide the assistance researchers need to crack those tough cases, which represent a sizable fraction of plant genes. To "teach" the AI, the team will program in available data, describing what scientists do know about plant genes and their functions. That's why the team also recruited machine learning ace Yuying Xie, assistant professor in the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, and expert experimentalist Melissa Lehti-Shiu, a research assistant professor in the Department of Plant Biology. In reaching its scientific goals -- using machine learning to predict gene functions -- the team is also aiming to demonstrate the power of AI as a research tool to the plant science community.

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Combining plant biology and machine learning let researchers sort through tens of thousands of genes to determine which make specialized metabolites. Researchers have combined plant biology and machine learning to sort through tens of thousands of genes to determine which genes make specialized metabolites. Some metabolites attract pollinators while others repel pests. Ever wonder why deer eat tulips and not daffodils?

Plants are master chemists, and Michigan State University researchers have unlocked their secret of producing specialized metabolites. The research, published in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combined plant biology and machine learning to sort through tens of thousands of genes to determine which genes make specialized metabolites. Some metabolites attract pollinators while others repel pests. Ever wonder why deer eat tulips and not daffodils? It's because daffodils have metabolites to fend off the critters who'd dine on them.