New research from New York University offers a promising path to growing corn with less fertilizer — using artificial intelligence to pinpoint genes that make plants more efficient at using nitrogen. “By identifying genes-of-importance to nitrogen utilization, we can select for or even modify certain genes to enhance nitrogen use efficiency in major U.S. crops like corn,” said Gloria Coruzzi, senior author and Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor in NYU’s Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology.