Fayetteville, Arkansas
July 8, 2008
Molecular biology with plants has
been given a shot in the arm by National Science Foundation
funding for what collaborating scientists call the Plant Powered
Production (P3) research group on three Arkansas campuses.
The P3 group links research programs in the University of
Arkansas System's statewide Division of Agriculture, on the
Fayetteville and Little Rock campuses of the U of A, and in the
Arkansas Biosciences Institute at
Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
The group was awarded a total of $5 million over three years by
the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority through funding it
received in August 2007 from the National Science Foundation’s
Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Project
leaders are Ken Korth, a plant pathology professor with the
Division of Agriculture based at UA, Fayetteville; Steve Grace,
a biology professor at UA, Little Rock; and Carole Cramer,
director of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute at ASU.
Goals are to develop plant molecular biology research
infrastructure, develop statewide collaborative work, add new
personnel, and make existing faculty more competitive for
research funds, Korth said.
For example, Korth said, researchers in Fayetteville will use
their expertise in extraction methods of plant compounds and
work with researchers in Jonesboro who have developed plant
cultures producing resveratrol, the chemical component of red
wines that has many benefits to human health.
“Ultimately, we want to understand the ways in which plants can
be used to improve human and environmental health,” Korth said.
"New frontiers of plant research of antioxidants, antimicrobial
agents and targeted gene insertion can be explored in rich
detail."
The P3 project awards seed grants for research projects,
including several so far on topics such as extraction of useful
products from plant cultures and natural defenses of plants
against insects.
Some $440,320 worth of new instruments, all housed at
Fayetteville, will streamline the collection of data; what once
took hours is now configured and tallied in seconds, Korth said.
“This equipment is meant to add to total research capacity for
scientists at UAF,” Korth said. “It is also meant to be
accessible to any researcher with a need, so if anyone is
interested in using the equipment they can contact me.”
Four pieces of equipment added this year include:
- a Storm 540 phosphorimager
scanner, equipped with a high-powered laser to detect
quantity of fluorescence and radioisotope-labeled DNA, RNA,
and proteins;
- a Nanodrop fluorometer for
accurate measurement of fluorescent samples in volumes as
low as one microliter;
- New Brunswick
shaker-incubators, equipped with refrigeration, gas ports
and photosynthetic lights for controlled growth of bacterial
and plant cultures; and
- a Varian Gas Chromatograph
with quadruple-mass spectrometer with MS/MS capability,
equipped with an autosampler injection system for liquid,
volatile, or solid-phase microextraction injections. This
$200,000 purchase included $100,000 from a Howard Hughes
Medical Institute grant awarded to faculty in the Fulbright
College of Arts and Sciences. It is in the Statewide Mass
Spectrometry lab in the Chemistry Building, directed by Jack
Lay.
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