May 20, 2005
Iowa State's Plant Sciences Institute awards innovative
research grants
by Teddi Barron
The Plant Sciences Institute has awarded start-up funding to seven
innovative research projects by ISU faculty. The two-year grants are between
$25,000 and $30,000 per year.
The projects relate to the institute's research initiatives, which target
specific challenges facing Iowa agriculture and the plant bioscience
industry. The initiatives are in the areas of genomics, biopharmaceuticals,
nutrition, biorenewables and crop protection.
Criteria for selection included scientific merit, potential impact,
innovation and probability to lead to future funding or to produce clearly
defined products or services that will enhance the value of Iowa's crops.
"We're pleased to initiate these quality research projects. They have
great potential for contributing to the advancement of plant science
research for the benefit of Iowa agriculture," said Stephen Howell, director
of the Plant Sciences Institute.
The research projects are described below.
- Thomas Harrington, professor of plant pathology and natural
resource ecology and management, will develop DNA markers to track the
movement of Asian soybean rust in the United States. The project will
complement ongoing research in the institute's crop protection initiative to
identify genes in soybean that are activated in response to rust fungus
infection.
- Martha James, adjunct associate professor in biochemistry, biophysics
and molecular biology, will lead a team developing a resistant or slower
digestible starch to help combat type 2 diabetes and obesity. Resistant
starch will prevent the rapid rise in blood glucose levels, slow insulin
release and reduce caloric availability. The researchers will focus on a
form of starch developed at ISU (LCAPS) that has potential as a resistant
starch.
- Soybeans pack a lot of soy proteins in their seeds. Diane Bassham,
assistant professor of genetics, development and cell biology, will
investigate ways to use that packaging system to store therapeutic proteins
made in the seeds of soybean plants engineered to produce
biopharmaceuticals.
- Alfalfa is a forage crop for livestock that also could be a
biorenewable feedstock for the production of bioenergy and industrial
products. Charles Brummer, associate professor of agronomy, will identify
genes associated with heterosis (hybrid vigor), yield and autumn dormancy.
Brummer will use Iowa State's GeneChip facility to search through thousands
of genes in the alfalfa genome to find expression patterns associated with
genes that may boost yields or improve winter hardiness.
- Julie Dickerson, associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering, will lead an effort to launch a public database on the Web for
soybean gene expression data. Called SoyPLEX, it will be the first resource
for soybean scientists that integrates new and rapidly expanding
gene-expression profile data sets with traditional structural genomics and
phenotypic data.
- Scientists believe that hemoglobins, the same proteins that carry
oxygen in our bodies, protect healthy plant cells from harmful oxygen
species, but they don't fully understand how. Mark Hargrove, associate
professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, will
investigate corn hemoglobins to understand how they are involved in plant
responses to oxidative stress (the buildup of harmful oxygen in
plants).
- This project aims to strengthen the vaccine for Porcine Reproductive
Respiratory Syndrome, which costs the swine industry $600 million annually.
Chad Stahl, assistant professor of animal science, and Dr. Hank Harris,
professor of animal science and veterinary diagnostic and production animal
medicine, will evaluate the vaccine's performance in pigs fed corn
genetically engineered at Iowa State to produce the immune-stimulating
protein. If successful, this strategy might help curtail the use of
antibiotics in livestock production.
