NSF Org:	MCB Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences
Recipient:	MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	August 12, 2002
Latest Amendment Date:	August 12, 2002
Award Number:	0224655
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Parag R. Chitnis MCB  Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences BIO  Directorate for Biological Sciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2002
End Date:	August 31, 2006 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$429,062.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$429,062.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2002 = $429,062.00
History of Investigator:	John Ohlrogge (Principal Investigator) ohlrogge@msu.edu Michael Pollard (Co-Principal Investigator) Yair Shachar-Hill (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Michigan State University 426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI  US  48824-2600 (517)355-5040
Sponsor Congressional District:	07
Primary Place of Performance:	Michigan State University 426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI  US  48824-2600
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	R28EKN92ZTZ9
Parent UEI:	VJKZC4D1JN36
NSF Program(s):	PHYSIOLOG & STRUCTURAL SYS, Cellular & Biochem Engineering
Primary Program Source:	app-0102
Program Reference Code(s):	1063, 1141, 1168, 1491, 9183, BIOT
Program Element Code(s):	114100, 149100
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.074

ABSTRACT

Plant seeds are the world's most important agricultural product and the lowest cost biological source of carbohydrates, oils and proteins. An important goal of plant metabolic engineering is to develop chemical and nutritional production systems in seeds that are amenable to rational genetic engineering. To reach this goal, a quantitative understanding of fluxes through biochemical pathways is needed for seeds. This project will begin to provide such an understanding through analysis and engineering of the accumulation of storage oils in Brassica napus seeds.

Three central questions about oilseed metabolism will be addressed: How do seeds cope with the CO2 generated during oil synthesis? By what pathways does carbon flow from sucrose to oil and storage proteins and how are these pathways influenced by availability of light? What is the source of reductant for fatty acid biosynthesis? These problems are interlinked by shared metabolic intermediates and pathways and the processes they represent must be coordinately regulated during seed development.

This project will lead to a quantitative description of metabolic networks in a major agricultural production system, and to improved strategies for engineering changes in metabolism. The resulting progress in understanding, modeling and engineering seed metabolism and the interdisciplinary training of students and postdocs will help move plant metabolic engineering from the current hit and miss state toward a framework of rational design and analysis. This information will be crucial to expanding the use of plants as green factories that provide renewable and sustainable alternatives to petroleum and also aid nutritional improvements in the seeds that provide most of the world's food.

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