Project Abstract and Goals
Grain and forage legumes are grown on some 180 million Ha, or about 15% of the Earth's arable land and account for 27% of the world's primary crop production. These plants are distinguished by their ability to form symbiotic associations with rhizobial bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi. In the rhizobial association, the bacteria fix atmospheric nitrogen, providing the major source of biologically available nitrogen in the biosphere. The fungal symbiosis results in improved phosphorous acquisition in soils often containing limiting amounts of this nutrient. Despite the agricultural and ecological importance of legumes, little is known about most the genes that are involved in bacterial or fungal symbioses.
The legume research community has developed many resources around the model legume Medicago truncatula. These include a large-scale sequencing project that has identified many of the genes that are active in roots during symbiosis, the development of efficient transformation protocols, and an ongoing genome sequencing project. These resources, when combined with the use of RNA interference (RNAi), which can be used to silence the expression of virtually any gene whose sequence is at least partially known, will be used to identify genes involved in the plant-microbe symbioses.
Analysis of sequence databases, input from the legume community and results from gene expression studies will be used to identify genes that are possibly involved in symbiosis and 1,500 of them will be targeted for silencing through RNAi. The effects on symbiosis of gene silencing will be examined in transgenic roots and the results reported to the research community through a publicly available project web-site.
This research project makes use of a variety of scientific fields including molecular biology, microbiology, plant biology and bioinformatics. The research also employees one of the latest and most powerful genomic technologies, RNAi, which is being used in a variety of applications from investigations into basic biology to the development of human therapeutics. The research team will introduce selected undergraduate students to many aspects the research which will expose them to the excitement of modern biological research. Additionally, collaborators at Gustavus Adolphus College, an undergraduate institution, will develop a laboratory course that follows the general protocols described in the research proposal. The materials and protocols that are developed through the research project are an excellent resource for this effort. The outcome of this effort will be the description of a series of experiences that undergraduate students in plant biology, plant molecular biology, or plant physiology can obtain in one semester course.
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Last Updated: 9/18/06
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