Program News
- Latest News (2004-2005)
- Older News
- Graduate School Brief
PBS Faculty News
Happenings in 2008-2009!!!
- Jessica Savage has been awarded the U of M Doctoral Dissertation
Fellowship for the 2008-09 academic year. She will receive fellowship support,
tuition and fringes.
- Happenings in 2007-2008!!!
Students
that graduated in the past academic year were
Ling
Wang has been is
being honored at the Arabidopsis Conference for his excellence in
research.
Jennifer Dechaine was awarded the U of M Doctoral
Dissertation Fellowship for the 2007-08 academic year. She will receive
fellowship support, tuition and fringes.
Jessica Savage was awarded the Brand Fellowship
for fall 2007 which provided a stipend, tuition and fringes.
Brian Piasecki and Edward Gilding, 5th year students
were awarded the Microbial Plant and Genomics Institute Fellowship
for spring 2008. This provided his stipend, tuition, fringes and
lab supplies.
NSF funded GK-12 Initiative
Nicholas Deacon received the NSF funded GK-12 initiative
assistantship award for July 1 through June 30, 2008.
Jessica Biever, John Compton, , Kai-Ting Fan, Jennifer Irving, Moana
McClellan, Christopher Pinahs, and Sun Ye, incoming first-year students
in 2007-08 were all awarded a Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program
Research Assistantship for their first semester. They will be rotating in
faculty's labs in fall 2007 and spring 2008 until they identify an advisor.
Plant Biological Sciences Summer Fellowships were awarded to Jessica
Biever, John Compton, Nick Deacon, Carrie Eberle, Kai-Ting Fan, Nelson Garcis,,
Sajeet Haridas, Yadong Huang, Lingtian Kong, Keunsub Lee, Xing Liu, Moana
McClellan, Ryoko Oono, Brian Piasecki, Chris Pinahs, Yiping Qi, Jessica Savage,
Kerrie Sendall, Xiaodong Sun, Xaoqing Sun, Ye Sun, Heather Whittington, Lynette
Wong, Lin Wang, Songqing Ye, and Yun Zhou.
Plant Biological Sciences Travel Awards were awarded to the following PBS
students (up to $1,000): Nick Deacon, Jennifer
Dechaine, Carrie Eberle, Nelson Garcia, He Huang, Yadong Huang, Keunsub
Lee, Xing Liu, Moana McClellan, Ryoko Oono, Brian Piasecki, Yiping Qi,
Jessica Savage, Kerrie Sendall, Xiaodong Sun, Xiaoqing Sun, Tim Whitfeld,
Heather Whittington, Lin Wang, Yun Zhou and Kelly Zinn.
Heather Whittington received the Plant Biological Exceptional Travel award
for career and professional development ($3,000).
Happenings in
2006-2007!!!
Maj Padamsee was
awarded the Bernard and Jean Phinney Graduate Fellowship. She will receive
fellowship support, tuition and and fringes for Spring 2007 semester. Maj is
doing research with the Assembling the Fungl Tree of Life project (AFTOL),
a collaborative project involving
four universisites. She incorporates state of the art molecular techniques
and phylogenetic methods to evaulate evolutionary relationships in the mushroom
genus Psathyrella.
Two PBS graduate students have been awarded U of M Doctoral
Dissertation Fellowships for the 2006-07 academdemic year. In
her research under mentor George Weiblen, Wendy
Clement investigates the evolutionary history and reproductive
ecology of a group of 60 species collectively known as the Castilleae,
which are the closest relatives to the figs. This work involves many international
experiences, including collecting Castilleae in the Amazon-Basin region
of Ecuador and conducting pollination studies on the island of Papua
New Guinea. Wendy also spends time in the lab in Minnesota, where she gathers
molecular sequence data for her studies of evolutionary history. Wendy
did her undergraduate work at Ithaca College, where she majored in biology
and minored in mathematics. While a Ph.D. student, she has also received
an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, a Garden Club of America
Award in Tropical Botany, and the Carol and Wayne Pletcher Graduate Fellowship.
Qiuxia Wu, incoming first-year student in 2006-07 was awarded the
Microbial Plant and Genomics Institute Fellowship for the academic year. Qiuxia
will be rotating with faculty before identifying an advisor in May.
Nelson Garcia, incoming first-year student in 2006-07 was awarded a Fullbright
Scholarship. He is pursuing a Master Degree and is working with Dr. Ronald
Phillips.
He Huang, Xing Liu, Carrie Eberle, Kerry Sendall, Heather
Whittington, Tim Whitfeld, and Amy Mueller, incoming first-year students
in 2006-07 were all awarded a Plant Biological Sciences Graduate Program Research
Assistantship for their first semester. They will be rotating in faculty's
labs in fall 2006 until they identify an advisor.
PBS Student and Faculty News (2005-2006)
Phinney Fellowship
Wenjing Zhang received the Bernard
and Jean Phinney Graduate Fellowship in Plant Molecular Biology for
2005.
Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Bryn Dentinger was awarded a DDF fellowship from the Graduate School
for the academic year.
He has also received a $1,000 Backus Award from the Mycological
Society of America, and a travel grant from Deep
Hypha.
Center for Community Genetics Research and Travel Grants
Summer Silvieus, Laurie Stone
Hamm Memorial Fellowship
Ali Sivitz received this fellowship in the amount of $1,500
MPGI Travel Grants
Ali Sivitz
National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
Wendy Clement received a $11,743 NSF improvement grant as well as a $1,000
award from the American Society for Plant Taxonomists
Graduate Research Award and $5,000 for a UMN International Travel Dissertation Fellowship
PBS Travel Grant Awardees
Nicholas Deacon, Ed Gilding,
NSF funded GK-12 Initiative
Summer Silvieus received this award for July 1 through June 30, 2006. Summer
also received a CBS outstanding TA award.
Dayton-Wilkie Natural History Funds (Bell Museum)
Mahajabeen Padamsee received a $1,400 award. She also received an A.H.
& N.V. Smith Research Fund grant (MSA) for $1,200 and a $900 Deep
Hydra travel award. Jessica Savage also received athe Dayton Wilkie
Natural History Fellowship for $1,200.
PBS Faculty Awards for 2005-2006
Together with PI Mike Flickinger (BTI and BMBB), co-PIs Pete Lefebvre and Carolyn
Silflow obtained $404,988 in IREE funds for a three-year project
entitled, "Enhancing phototrophic production of hydrogen by genetic engineering
of Chamydomonas reihardtii ."
Steve Gantt has teamed up with Simo Sarkenen (Bi0-based
products) to clone fungal genes encoding lignin depolymerase, in a project
entitled "Recombinant Ligna Depolymerase with Enhanced Catalytic Properties." The
three-year project was funded by IREE for $270,000.
Kate VandenBosch and Research Associates Kevin Silverstein and
Michelle Graham are investigating newly identified genes that encode short
polypeptides related to anti-microbial proteins in the defensin family. The
three are co-PIs on a new award from NSF, entitled "Defensin-like genes in
two model plant species: expression, function and genome organization of a
large gene family."
Neil Olszewski and his associates received a renewal of
their NSF grant. The project entitled "Determining the Function of O-GlcNAc
Protein Modification in Signal Transduction" has been funded through July of
2008.
Peter Tiffin 's lab has received a new NSF award for a project
entitled "Collaborative Research: Ecological and Evolutionary-Genetic Limits
to Range Expansion." The four-year project is funded for $261,480, and commenced
August 1, 2005.
Carolyn Silflow and Pete Lefebvre are
PIs along with Elizabeth Harris of Duke University, for the Chlamydomonas Resource
Center grant from the NSF. The Center, which recently moved here from
Duke, maintains and distributes more than 4000 wild-type mutant strains, along
with several hundred plasmid constructs useful for Chlamydomonas research.
George Weiblen is the principal investigator on a new grant
for continuing work in New Guinea on a project entitled "Plant-insect food
webs and tropical rain forest succession." The 36 months, $550,000 project
is supported by the NSF Ecology Program.
Hatch funds have been awarded for a project entitled "Identification and analysis
of plant defense responses against the soil borne bacterial root pathogen Ralstonia
solanacearum," Raka Mitra and Jane Glazebrook will investigate
resistance in Arabidopsis and tomato to this causal agent of bacterial wilt.
Hatch funds have been awarded to Min Ni who will study "The
roles of RF12 in the integration of light and circadian signaling with photoperiodic
flowering."
Hatch funds have been awarded for the project entitled "Genetic analysis of
the secretion machinery of green plants." This project is a new collaboration
between Anton Sanderfoot and Carolyn Silflow . The
two will team up to perform a genetic screen in the green alga Chlamydomonas
reinhardtii for novel genes involved in secretion.
Dr. Nathan Springer was awarded second-year funding of $177,000
for his project titled "functional Genomics of Maize Chromatin" from the NSF.
Cynthia Weinig is one of ten U junior faculty members to
receive recognition as a McKnight Land-grant Professor for 2006-2008. Recipients
of this career development award for junior faculty members are chosen for
the significance of their past research and their potential to contribute to
their discipline.
Jennifer Powers has recently received notice that she will
receive a New Investigator Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Agency
(NASA). The 3 year project, entitled "A regional-scale analysis of regenerating
tropical dry forests in Costa Rica: measurements and models of the linkages
among biodiversity, ecosystem function and carbon storage," will commence this
fall.
Recognition Awards
Tom Soulen received the 2006 President's Award for Outstanding
Service from the University of Minnesota. Recipients of this award have gone
well beyond their regular duties and have demonstrated an unusual commitment
to the University community. Tom, a professor emeritus of plant biology, retired
several years ago. He is being recognized for his work as a faculty member
and his volunteer outreach efforts to strengthen science education at K-12
schools.
Dr. Pete Snustad has been elected a fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is being honored
for genetic dissection of bacteriophage T4-induced nuclear disruption and host
DNA degradation and for molecular analysis of the tubulin gene families of Arabidopsis
thaliana . Dr. Snustad, who has been a faculty member at the University
for 37 years, is co-author with Mike Simmons of "Principles of Genetics," a
textbook used by universities worldwide. An induction ceremony will be held
during the AAAS annual meeting, which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri,
in February 2006.
Assistant Professor George Weiblen has just been awarded
one of this year's 11 McKnight Land-Grant Professorships. This award was established
to recognize and rewrd the University of Minnesota's most promising junior
faculty. Dr. Weiblen joined the Plant Biology faculty in 2001.
The Department of Plant Biology also congratulates Professor David
Biesboer , this year's recipient of the Dagley-Kirkwood award from
the College of Biological Sciences. Awarded for excellence in teaching, this
honor recognizes Bies' classroom teaching over the years, including General
Botany and Developmental Plant Anatomy. The nomination also cited his important
contributions to the first year of Nature of Life, the new orientation program
for freshman in CBS. In last year's NOL, as it is called, Dave played both
an organizational role, as director of the Lake Itasca Biological Station,
and a teaching role. As instructor for "Bog Biology," Professor
Biesboer introduced more than 70 incoming freshman to north country field
botany. He has already headed back to Itasca for this year's summer session,
and to prepare for the second season of NOL this July. Thanks to Bies, a
new crop of students will return to campus with an interest in plants.
The achievements of two members of the Plant Biological Sciences faculty have
been recognized by a prestigious University of Minnesota award. Both Mike
Sadowsky (Soil, Water and Climate) and Nevin Young (Plant
Pathology) are among the five recipients of this year's Distinguished McKnight
University Professorships , which recognize the University's highest achieving
News (2004-2005)
NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
Katy Heath and Peter Voth were awarded the NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement
Grant
for 2005-2006, which is to provide research funding to students that are completing
their dissertation projects.
Carolyn Crosby Fellowship
Nicholas Deacon was awarded a $3,000 research grant and Jenny Dechaine
also received a $2,000 research grant for summer 2004.
Alexander P. and Lydia Anderson Fellowship
Maj Padamsee was awarded a $3,000 research grant
and Kelly Zinn was awarded a $2000 research grant.
Pletcher Fellowship
Wendy Clement was awarded a $2500 scholarship to be used for travel or
stipend.
Phinney Fellowship
Kavitha Kuppusamy and Ali Sivitz received the Bernard and Jean Phinney Graduate Fellowship in Plant Molecular Biology. Both students were awarded $6,500 for use for travel or stipend.
Student awarded Lydia Anderson Fellowship
Bryn Dentinger was awarded the Alexander P. and Lydia Anderson Fellowship with a summer 2004 stipend, plus a research grant.
PBS Travel Awards
The PBS Graduate Program support graduate student travel. These funds are to
help support travel to professional meetings, a scientific laboratory or workshops
to learn new techniques, or for the collection of biological materials. The
following students received travel awards for the 2003-2004 year are as
follows:
Lynette Wong, Katy Heath, Yadong Huang, Angela Hendrickson, Wendy
Clement, Maj Padamsee, Kirsten Bovee, Divya Chandran, Nicholas Deacon, Jenny
Dechaine, Jason Hill, Rebecca Knowles, Chery Scott, Ali Sivitz, Songqing Ye,
and Kelly Zinn.
PMGI Summer Fellowships
The Plant Molecular Genetics Institute awarded summer fellowships for the summer
of 2004. PBS students who received a fellowship are: Jenny Dechaine, Keunsub
Lee and
Kavitha Kuppusamy.
2004 PBS Summer Fellowships
Summer Block Grant Awardees for 2004 were:
Erin Dahlquist, Daniel Griffin, Sajeet Haridas, Pavani Maragowni, Victoria
Ranua, Summer Silvieus, Peter Voth, Chad Westberg and Kelly Zinn
PBS Faculty Kudos 2004-2005
Jane Glazebrook and Fumi
Katagiri have
received a four-year award of $1,280,000 from the NSF Arabidopsis 2010
program. The title of the project is "Network Analysis of Disease
Resistance Signaling".
The goals of the project, which begins September 20, 2004, are to use
a combination of expression profiling and reverse genetics to identify
Arabidopsis genes that contribute to disease resistance. Genes that affect
control of defense responses will be identified by expression profile phenotyping
using a custom microarray. The microarray data will then be used
to build a model of the topology of the signal transduction network controlling
defense responses to pathogen attack./04
John Ward has also received a new 2010 award that
is a renewal of an ongoing collaboration with Mary Lou Guerinot (Dartmouth),
Jeff Harper (UN, Reno), David Salt (Purdue) and Julian Schroeder (UCSD).
The project is entitled "The Ionome". The goal is to identify genes
responsible for nutrient accumulation and toxic ion accumulation/exclusion.
They perform ion profiling on Arabidopsis mutants grown under a variety of
conditions using ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy). The
project is funded for four years, starting September 1, 2004, with a total
of $362,049 going to the Ward lab. /04
Peter Tiffin and collaborators Peter
Reich and Ruth Shaw have received an NSF
award for a project entitled, "Natural Selection and Evolutionary
Constraints in an Elevated CO2 Environment". The $237,450 grant commenced
July 15, 2004, continuing work begun under an IREE seed grant on the potential
for plants' evolutionary responses to ongoing global climate change. /04
Fumi Katagiri recently received funding from the
USDA-NRI for a project entitled "Efficient Discovery of Plant Regulatory
Genes by Exploitation of Natural Variation". The project, which was
funded for three years for a total award of $400,000, has long-term implications
for crop improvement. Dr. Katagiri says that, "Naturally occurring genetic
variation is a great genetic
resource for crop improvement. This project is to develop a new, time- and
cost-efficient strategy for isolation of useful genes that are defined by such
natural variation." Funding for this work commenced July 1, 2004. /04
Kate VandenBosch's lab has recently obtained support
from the Department of Energy for their project "Nodulation Genes of
Medicago truncatula" Governing Early Responses to Rhizobia. The grant
was funded for three years for $360,000, and has a start date of September
1st. The project investigates symbiotic nitrogen fixation, a biological means
of obtaining nutrients that is
exploited by plants in the legume family. This project uses Medicago as a model
system to identify plant genes involved this process. One specific goal is
to clone a gene, NSP1, which is required for infection by beneficial bacteria.
/04
Drs. Steve Gantt, Kate VandenBosch, Carroll Vance,
Ernie Retzel, Debby Samac (all from the U of Minnesota)
and Maria Harrison (Boyce Thompson Institute) have received funding ($2.1
million) for a four-year study entitled "Use of Interfering RNAs to
Identify Gene Function in Medicago truncatula." This award from the
NSF Plant Genome will commence in October of
2004. The investigators and their team will silence the expression of about
1,500 individual genes in transgenic roots and examine the roots for altered
development and symbiotic associations. /04
David Marks' work on cell fate determination will
again be funded by NSF. The project, entitled "Use of a contradictory
glabra3 mutant to study Arabidopsis trichome development," has been
funded for three years for a total award of $405,000. Congratulations to
David for obtaining this competitive renewal. /04
Anton Sanderfoot will receive an award of $21,991
for his proposal "Intracellular localization of SNARE proteins in
Chlamydomonas." Nathan Springer will receive an award of $30,301 for
his proposal "Identification of cis-acting elements regulation imprinted
gene expression." /04
Peter Tiffin has received an REU supplement to
an existing NSF grant, entitled "Evolutionary history of defense genes
in the genus Zea and family Poaceae: insight from DNA sequence data." The
supplement of $5,875 will fund the participation of an undergraduate student
on the
project. /04
Carolyn Silflow has obtained a 4-year, $730,000
award for a project entitled Segregation and Positioning of Basal Bodies.
This project is a "gene discovery" project to identify and elucidate
the function of genes involved in positioning of basal bodies in Chlamydomonas.
Some of the genes may have homologs in other organisms with centrioles. The
project began on April 1, 2004.
George Weiblen received $16,000 from International
Programs at NSF for scientific exchange between the US and the Czech Republic.
This is a supplement to an NSF grant from the Ecology program titled Beta-diversity
of caterpillars (Lepidoptera) in tropical rainforests: testing predictions
of host specificity. The project involves the study of ecological associations
between phytophagous insects and tropical trees in Papua New Guinea by US
and Czech biologists. With matching funds from the Czech Academy of Science,
the co-PIs and four graduate students will meet in each country to (1) improve
the taxonomic identities of insect herbivores collected in Papua New Guinea,
(2) establish contacts with Smithsonian Institution taxonomists, and (3)
receive laboratory training in molecular systematics in the Weiblen lab. /04
David McLaughlin received a second REU amendment
to his NSF award, Assembling the Fungal Tree of Life. This addition provides
over $6,000 to fund undergraduate participation on his collaborative project
investigating the phylogeny of fungi. The project, with funds to Dr. McLaughlin's
group this year totaling about $275,000, runs through 2006. /04.
Sue Gibson, together with David
Somers in Agronomy and Plant Genetics, was awarded $31,660 for their
proposal "Using Genomics Tools to Manipulate Carbon partitioning to
Increase Crop Yields of Biofules and Biobased Products." The long-term
goal of the research is to develop crops that allocate a larger percentage
of their photosynthate to economically important compounds. The work will
utilize T-DNA insertion mutants of Arabidopsis to test the role of target
genes in sugar response pathways. The investigators plan to evaluate the
long-term potential of this line of research to enhance seed oil yields
for biodiesel and biobased feedstocks. /04
The second IREE award was received by Peter Tiffin, together
with his collaborators Peter Reich (Forest Products)
and Ruth Shaw (Ecology, Evolution and Behavior). This team will receive $25,000
to address the "Genetic Basis of Biomass Accumulation in theModel Plant
Arabidopsis thaliana grown in ambient and elevated CO2 environments." The
project will use quantitative genetics approaches to identify genetic constraints
on biomass accumulation. In the long term, the work is expected to help attain
high biomass-yielding crops in the face of a changing CO2 environment. /04
David Marks has also recently received notification
that NSF will fund his proposal entitled "Use of a Contradictory Glabra3
mutant to study Arabidopsis Trichome Development." The $405,000 award
will fund a three-year project that commences May 1, 2004. This grant enables
Dr. Marks to continue his long term in the determination of cell fate in
plants. /04
Recognition Awards
Assistant Professor George Weiblen has just been
awarded one of this year's 11 McKnight Land-Grant Professorships. This
award was established to recognize and reward the University of Minnesota's
most promising junior faculty. Another PBio faculty member, Dr.
Bill Gray, is a current holder of the award. Dr. Weiblen joined the
Plant Biology faculty in 2001, in a shared appointment with the Bell Museum,
where he is a curator of flowering plants. George's research under
the award concerns biodiversity in tropical rainforests, with an emphasis
on the evolution of plant/insect interactions. Another awardee this
year is Bryan Shuman , an assistant professor of geography, and spouse of
Cynthia Weinig. Congratulations to George, Bryan and the other awardees
this year. Information about this year's awards should soon be posted
at: http://www.grad.umn.edu/faculty-staff/mcknight/land_grant_recipients.html
. 1/05
The PBS Graduate Program also congratulates Professor
David Biesboer, this year's recipient of the Dagley-Kirkwood award
from the College of Biological Sciences. Awarded for excellence in teaching,
this honor recognizes Bies' classroom teaching over the years, including
General Botany and Developmental Plant Anatomy. The nomination also cited
his important contributions to the first year of Nature of Life, the new
orientation program for freshman in CBS. In last year's NOL, as it is called,
Dave played both an organizational role, as director of the Lake Itasca
Biological Station, and a teaching role. As instructor for "Bog Biology," Professor
Biesboer introduced more than 70 incoming freshman to north country field
botany. He has already headed back to Itasca for this year's summer session,
and to prepare for the second season of NOL this July. Thanks to Bies,
a new crop of students will return to campus with an interest in plants.
01/05
The achievements of two members of the Plant Biological Sciences faculty
have been recognized by a prestigious University of Minnesota award. Both Mike
Sadowsky (Soil, Water and Climate) and Nevin Young (Plant
Pathology) are among the five recipients of this year's Distinguished McKnight
University Professorships, which recognize the University's highest achieving
mid-career faculty. Dr. Young is also jointly appointed in Plant Biology.
Please join me in congratulating both of our valued colleagues. Note that
a reception to honor the awardees will be held in the Cargill Atrium and
Seminar room at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 26th.
Assistant Professor awarded million dollar grant
Bill Gray, assistant professor
of plant biology, has been awarded a $1.04 million grant from the National
Institutes of Health. Gray will use the funding to improve understanding
of how the plant hormone auxin regulates growth and development in plants.
This has potential benefits for agriculture and horticulture and could
lead to improved understanding of similar regulatory mechanisms in animals,
including humans.
Older News
Graduate student receives $6,000 Carolyn Crosby Fellowship
Bryn
Dentinger, a graduate student in the Plant Biological
Sciences Program, received a $6,000 Carolyn Crosby Fellowship
for the summer of 2003. Dentinger studies the systematics of the
Mushroom Genus Boletus Section Edulis.
|
 |
Graduate student awarded Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Andrew Baumgarten, a graduate student in the Plant Biological
Sciences program, has been awarded the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
for the academic year 2003-2004. Baumgarten PhD dissertation research
is on long-standing plant-pathogen interaction to investigate
the question of disease resistance durability that applies to
both plants and animals including humans. |
 |
500 attend grand opening of Cargill Building
Nearly 500 people attended the opening of the Cargill Building
Microbial and Plant Genomics on Monday, May 5. Speakers included
Governor Tim Pawlenty, University President Robert Bruininks,
Cargill CEO Warren Staley, Claire Fraser, director of The Institute
for Genomics Research During the ceremony, as well as Ron Phillips,
director of the Center for Microbial and Plant Genomics, and deans
Bob Elde and Chuck Muscoplat. The Center for Microbial and Plant
Genomics will be housed there. This building will be home to more
than 22 principal investigators and 175 supporting researchers.
The research will focus on using microorganisms to clean up the
environment; making agricultural plants more resistant to disease,
pests, and climate; and developing new drugs for cancer and other
life-threatening diseases.
|
 |
Assistant Professor awarded million dollar grant
Bill Gray, assistant professor of plant biology, has been awarded a $1.04 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Gray
will use the funding to improve understanding of how the plant hormone
auxin regulates growth and development in plants. This has potential
benefits for agriculture and horticulture and could lead to improved
understanding of similar regulatory mechanisms in animals, including
humans. |
 |
|
New faculty member receives Young Investigator Award
Cynthia Weinig, new faculty member in the Department
of Plant Biology, has received a Young Investigator Award from the
National Science Foundation's Plant Genomics Research Project (PGRP)
for $1.7 million over four years. Weinig uses Arabidopsis to study
evolution of plant fitness to the environment. She and collaborator
Julin Maloof at UC Davis, who will share the award, are interested
in understanding how selection acts on crowding responses in agricultural
settings. More specifically, plants can modify their phenotype (for
instance shape or form) in response to crowding and the onset of
competition for sunlight. There is now strong evidence that flexible
developmental responses to crowding, such as stem elongation, confer
a fitness advantage to individual plants in natural settings.
University of Minnesota awarded $2.65 million by National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation has awarded $2.65 million to the
University of Minnesota - along with Duke, Oregon State, and Clark
universities - to study genetic relationships among fungi. The four-year
grant is part of NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life program. David
McLaughlin, professor of plant biology and curator of fungi,
Bell Museum of Natural History, is principal investigator for the
University's $510,000 share of the grant.
"In assembling the
family tree of fungi, our team will look at multiple genes and structural
characteristics across a broad spectrum of fungi and put them in
a database," McLaughlin says. "Here at the University
of Minnesota, we're studying subcellular characters. Many ultrastructural
characters, such as those associated with nuclear division, have
proven to be useful phylogenetic indicators. Our role will be to
compile the existing data into a web accessible database as well
as to gather new information, especially where there are major gaps
in the data, he added."
The study could point researchers to
species of fungi that, by virtue of their relatedness to medically
or commercially important species, may produce new drugs or other
useful products. McLaughlin says the evolutionary line leading to
fungi split from lines leading to plants and animals more than 1.5
billion years ago. In 1995, researchers determined that fungi are
more closely related to animals than to plants, McLaughlin says.
Only 5-10 percent of an estimated 1.5 million fungi species are
known.
Plant Biology professor awarded David and Lucille Packard Fellowship
George
Weiblen, plant biology, has been selected for a David and
Lucille Packard Fellowship. This highly competitive program allows
the nation's most promising young scientists and engineers to pursue
research with few funding restrictions and limited paperwork. The
Packard Foundation invites presidents of 50 universities to nominate
two young professors for the awards. Nominations are reviewed by
a panel of distinguished scientists who recommend 20 fellows to
receive individual grants of $625,000 over five years. The foundation
was created by David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, and
his wife, Lucille Salter Packard, in 1964. Weiblen studies plant
systematics, molecular phylogenetics, coevolution, and plant/pollinator
interactions. He co-authored a study recently published in Nature
that revised the estimated number of arthropod species worldwide
from 31 million to between four and six million. Claudia Schmidt-Dannert,
BMBB, received a Packard Fellowship last year.
2002 Minnesota Legislature approves $17.7 million for Plant Growth Facilities
$17.7 million for Plant Growth Facilities was included in the capital
bonding bill approved by the 2002 Minnesota Legislature and Governor
Ventura at the end of May. Other projects include HEAPR ($35 million),
Duluth Lab Science ($33 million), Nicholson Hall ($24 million),
Bede Hall, Crookston ($7.7 million), and Classroom Improvements,
system wide ($2 million). The total value of the approved projects
for the University, including the University's debt obligation and
private contributions, is $119.4 million. Dean Elde thanks all faculty,
staff, alumni, and students who contributed to the grass roots support
effort by writing letters and making phone calls. Special thanks
go to Ruth Shaw, professor of ecology, and Dave Biesboer, professor
of plant biology, who led planning for the project and advocated
for funding.
|
|
Return
to: Graduate
School: CBS: CFANS: U
of M Home
