Microbe degrades herbicides in soil

Lawrence Wackett, professor and head of microbial biochemistry, and Michael Sadowsky, professor of soil, water, and climate, have received a National Science Foundation grant of $700,000 to sequence the genome of Arthrobacter aurescens, a soil bacterium that breaks down atrazine and other herbicides.

Arthrobacterstrains are widespread in soil around the globe and contribute to recycling of organic matter, breaking down environmental pollutants, and transforming heavy metals. They have the ability to degrade herbicides and other organic compounds and to transform toxic heavy metals into nontoxic forms. The researchers hope knowing the sequence will give them new tools such as genes, enzymes, and other proteins to clean up the environment.

The project includes collaboration with the Minnesota Science Museum to create hands-on exhibits showing how microbial genomic technologies enhance the environment. Genome sequencing will be done in collaboration with The Institute for Genome Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Md.

U wins $10.8 million NSF grant to sequence legume genome

High nutritional value and the ability to fix nitrogen have won the legume a place of honor in the plant genomics hall of fame. The humble vegetable, a primary source of protein for much of the world's population, will be the third plant sequenced, following Arabidopsis,a model green plant, and rice.

Medicago truncatula, the model legume, will share the glory with the University of Minnesota, which was awarded a $10.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to lead the multi-institution effort. Nevin Young, professor of plant biology and plant pathology, is principal investigator of the effort, which is part of the NSF's plant genome research program.

Medicago was selected because it provides an excellent experimental system to study soybeans, mung beans, chickpeas, cowpeas, and lentils, crops that constitute the major source of protein for people throughout the developing world. Alfalfa, also a legume and a major source of protein for foraging cattle, is a close relative of Medicago truncatula.

Legumes acquire their high protein content by producing their own fertilizer through a process known as nitrogen fixation. Legumes also produce many compounds with health-promoting properties, such as anti-cancer activity.

"Before fertilizers were commercially produced, agriculture worldwide depended on legumes to supply the nitrogen needed to make protein," Young says.

Young will direct the sequencing project and coordinate its bioinformatics component with Ernest Retzel of Minnesota's Center for Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics. DNA sequencing will be performed at robotic facilities at the University of Oklahoma Genome Center and The Institute for Genomic Research. The NSF grant adds to more than $5 million in Medicagogenomics research already underway at Minnesota.

"This project will provide valuable tools for everyone at the University who studies Medicago," says Kate VandenBosch, head of plant biology.

McKinnell marks 50th anniversary of cloning

In 1958, Bob McKinnell jumped at the chance to work with Tom King, a researcher at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia who was first to clone an animal (a frog) in 1952. McKinnell, then a graduate student in zoology at the University of Minnesota, met King when he was a visiting professor at the U of M. King used cloning to better understand cancer, and McKinnell was a National Cancer Institute Predoctoral Research Fellow in Zoology. He worked in King's lab at Fox Chase for three years.

That experience has served McKinnell, now professor emeritus of GCD, well during his career, which has focused on cancer biology. And he remains an authority on cloning technology. In 1978 he wrote the first book on cloning by a scientist, and has authored many articles on the subject. When the film "Jurassic Park" was released in the early 1990s, McKinnell was in demand by the media.

Most recently, McKinnell co-authored "The Golden Anniversary of Cloning: A Celebratory Essay" in the September issue of Differentiation (volume 71, Number 7, Sept. 2003). He's proud of that accomplishment, but even more proud of the cover image, which was designed by CBS undergraduate Taryn O. Hall, who is also a staff member in the CBS Imaging Center.

Now retired from research, McKinnell maintains an office in the Biological Sciences Center on the St. Paul campus, where he works on articles and books. He is finishing a revision of "The Biological Basis of Cancer, published by Cambridge University Press in 1998, and beginning a work on the history and ethics of cloning.

Goodall's Gombe Reunion is a real hoot

More than 100 scientists who worked with Jane Goodall at Tanzania's Gombe National Park over the past 43 years gathered at the University of Minnesota in October for the group's first formal reunion.

The event started with a chimpanzee pant-hoot that was led by Goodall and included professors from Harvard, Stanford, and other distinguished universities.

The reunion allowed participants to learn about research at the Center for Primate Studies at CBS and to discuss conservation efforts and future behavior studies.

Packer to study human impact on Serengeti

Craig Packer received a $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation for "Biocomplexity of the Greater Serengeti: Humans in a Biologically Diverse Ecosystem." He will use four different models to study the impact of humans on the Serengeti. Packer is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.

Packer's research also was featured in the Sunday Express, a British newspaper, in November. The article, "Disney fights to help the lions of Tanzania survive," focuses on Project Simba, funded by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, which studies the impact of elephant populations on lion populations in Tarangire National Park (Tanzania). The increase of the park's elephants may disturb mating habits of lions, whose cubs are at risk of being trampled by the elephants.