Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
March 1, 2002

Researchers capture NSF grants

by Teddi Barron
Iowa State faculty affiliated with the Plant Sciences Institute have received five research grants totaling $5.5 million in the National Science Foundation's plant genome research program.

They are among 24 new grants awarded to 109 researchers at 39 institutions. Iowa State faculty will lead three of the research projects and are sub-contractors on two others.

NSF's plant genome program is intended to build an understanding of the structure and function of plant genes.

Kan Wang, director of the Plant Transformation Facility and an agronomy research scientist, will lead researchers from Purdue University, the University of Wisconsin and North Carolina State University to improve plant transformation technologies for maize. Plant transformation involves transferring specific genes into cells and growing the modified cells into whole plants. Wang's $4.2 million, five-year project will establish efficient maize transformation systems and make them available to researchers in the public sector.

Thomas Peterson, zoology and genetics and agronomy, received a $648,549 three-year grant to develop a new genetic technology that will delete large portions of DNA in plant genomes quickly and efficiently.

"Most of the DNA in plant genomes does not appear to have any function," Peterson said. "Researchers may know that an important gene is located in a particular region, but it may be embedded in non-functional DNA. By making big deletions, researchers can remove the non-functional DNA and more quickly pinpoint the gene they want."

Volker Brendel, zoology and genetics and statistics, will develop a plant genome database and analysis tools with the $158,996 two-year grant he received. Brendel will develop a Web-based database of plant genomic sequences.

In separate research, Brendel will lead the computational data management and analysis for a five-year University of California maize project in which researchers will identify the genes that determine the fates of seed-producing floral meristem and investigate how these genes are controlled.

Patrick Schnable, agronomy and zoology and genetics, was awarded a two-year grant as a subcontractor for Kansas State researchers studying the functional genomics of rice.