Archives
UI researchers to take part in research on gene function in mustard plant
Jim Barlow,
Life Sciences Editor
(217) 333-5802; b-james3@illinois.edu
10/10/01
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – University of Illinois researchers have major roles in a newly announced
$43.8 million National Science Foundation-funded initiative to define
the function of the genes in a plant considered a model for understanding
all plants. Eventually, their findings could have dramatic implications
for all agricultural crops.
Researchers from 43 institutions will focus on the individual roles
of the 25,000 genes in Arabidopsis thaliana, a mustard plant for which
scientists in an international effort recently published the complete
genome sequence. Two of the 28 new grants under the NSF’s new 2010
Project will bring about $4.6 million to the UI campus.
Mary A. Schuler, a professor in the department of cell and structural
biology, will lead a $3.46 million effort to define gene expression
patterns of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase gene family making up
about 1 percent of the genome.
The NSF 2010 Genome Technology Center funded for this group will create
microarrays for analysis of P450 RNA expression patterns in Arabidopsis
tissues responding to environmental cues and chemical stresses. This
work will be extended into the fields of functional genomics by generating
protein complexes suitable for chemical profiling of each P450’s
substrate preferences. The strategies will allow for a more complete
understanding of a plant’s biochemical responses to stress conditions.
The center also will have an outreach program that includes Web-based
courses in plant and animal biotechnology, and opportunities for high
school teachers and students at both secondary and undergraduate levels
to learn more about molecular biology, biotechnology and functional
genomics.
Co-principal investigators on the grant – the second largest of
the NSF initiative – are Lei Liu, director of bioinformatics, and
Mark Band, director of functional genomics, both at the UI Biotechnology
Center; and Stephen G. Sligar, a professor in the departments of biochemistry
and of chemistry. Collaborators include Hans Bohnert, a new faculty
member in the departments of plant biology and of crop sciences, and
Daniele Werck-Reichhart of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
in Strasbourg, France.
Daniel R. Bush, a UI professor of plant biology and a scientist with
the Photosynthesis Research Unit of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service,
will lead the
UI-based portion of a $3.2 million grant awarded through New York University
to study nitrogen-regulated gene expression in Arabidopsis. His effort
as a co-principal investigator, which encompasses about one-third of
the grant, will focus on amino acid transporters in the plant’s
vascular system.
The goal of this grant, which also will disperse funds to researchers
at the University of California at San Diego, is to identify regulatory
networks that control the expression of key genes associated with nitrogen
assimilation and allocation. The various researchers work on different
components of nitrogen biology in plants. One of their objectives is
to create a publicly accessible Web database that details all of the
gene functions related to nitrogen metabolism, which is vital to the
growth of all plants.
According to the NSF announcement, Arabidopsis is a model to plants
much like the mouse is for human research. The plant has far fewer non-coding,
or junk, DNA than do most of the higher plants such as corn, wheat and
soybeans.
In announcing the 2010 Project grants on Oct. 1, NSF Director Rita Colwell
said: "While the task is daunting, it is also essential to this
growing area of biotechnology research and its many applications. Only
by understanding the fundamental processes of each gene can we piece
together the puzzle of how DNA determines, for example, the rate of
growth, resistance to disease and many other factors in plants."
