The Miller Lab has zeroed in on long-lived crops as one possible tool to build a sustainable agricultural system. Long-lived crops, or perennials, live for many years, enriching the soil, and their deep roots combat erosion and sequester more carbon. In a world where 70% of crops are annuals, conversion of even a fraction to perennial crops would have a big environmental impact. 鈥淔or years, humans have grown crops to serve human needs, often at the expense of the environment. It鈥檚 time we developed crops that can benefit the planet, as well as humans.鈥�

Allison and her team are currently trialing 12 herbaceous perennial species as candidates for crop development. It takes a long time to domesticate plants, and for longer-lived plants, it takes even longer. To speed the process, the Miller Lab is attempting early stage selection鈥攑redicting future traits from early life stage traits鈥攁n endeavor that she credits to Danforth Center resources. 鈥淭he Danforth Center has incredible infrastructure. We have the computational power and know-how, unique robotic trait monitoring, the world鈥檚 best research greenhouses, expert staff, all under one roof. It makes cutting-edge research possible.鈥�

Today, as a principal investigator at the Danforth Center and professor of biology at Saint Louis University, Allison is still fascinated by the diversity of plants. She sees in them hope and potential to save the world: 鈥淧lants offer unlimited potential solutions to every major agricultural and ecological problem we are facing. We are not tapped out鈥攚e are not even close to discovering all the plant biodiversity that might help.鈥�