"The corn genome has 2,500 million DNA base pairs," Phillips said. "This system theoretically lets us map to within 5 million base pairs or less. With this grant, mapping will be done enough to prove the concept and the system for future uses."
One goal is to achieve 1,000 hybrid plant lines, each essentially an oat plant with a unique fragment of a corn chromosome. Another goal is to map more than 100,000 DNA sequences with the system.
Phillips will share his data and hybrid plants with other researchers. The mapping system will aid work on how corn genes express themselves in the environment of oat cells and whether corn genes could be used to improve desirable traits in oats, both of which have application in plant genetic engineering; the evolution of the corn plant; and various aspects of corn chromosome functioning.
The legume project will focus on the barrel medic, a close relative of alfalfa that, like alfalfa and other legumes, can "fix" atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use as a fertilizer. The plant owes this ability to symbiosis with bacteria that infect its roots. The work will center on how the plant communicates with the bacteria, said Nevin Young, a professor of plant pathology and coordinator of the grant at the university.
"This interaction teaches us about how other organisms communicate," Young said. "For example, similar types of communication occurs between organisms living in symbiosis and between hosts and infectious agents in disease."
"Legumes are important in human and animal diets because they're protein-rich," said Kate VandenBosch, a co-investigator on the grant. "Worldwide, legumes supply 33 percent of human protein intake, and people have hist
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Contact: Deane Morrison
morri029@umn.edu
612-624-2346
University of Minnesota
9-Nov-2001