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NSF PR 01-89 - November 1, 2001
NSF Boosts Funding for Plant Genome Research
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 24
new grants totaling more than $71 million over the
next five years for plant genome research. These awards
will be shared by 109 investigators at 39 institutions
in 27 states.
The latest grants bring NSF's total investment in
the National Plant Genome Research Program to more
than $215 million. Many of these new projects build
upon research success from the previous three years
of the program. For example, when NSF began this program
in 1998, only about 3,100 segments of DNA, known as
expressed sequence tags (ESTs), were identified in
corn and available in the public databases. Now, 106,595
ESTs are identified in corn and another 285,925 in
soybeans.
"There has been an enormous growth in information on
plant genomes. The new awards are building on these
recent accomplishments and will help increase our
understanding of the basic life processes in plants,
which can, in the long term, provide the underpinning
for advances in plant biotechnology," said Dr. Mary
E. Clutter, NSF Assistant Director for Biological
Sciences.
The overall plant genome research program was designed
to build an understanding of the structure and function
of plant genes important to agriculture, environmental
management, energy and health. Individual research
projects seek to understand, at the whole genome scale,
how plants grow and what controls important plant
traits. The research awards support studies of economically
important crops like barley, cotton, corn, rice, sorghum,
soybean and tomato.
Some of the new projects will focus on innovative methods
for gene discovery and characterization. These include
the development of homologous gene replacement, massively
parallel signature sequencing and mutations induced
by transposons.
Scientists will investigate the genetic control of
form and function in flowers, from flowering to seed
production. Projects will characterize the genes controlling
the differentiation of flower cells and examine genes
that play a central role in development of plant features.
Other research will investigate the complex gene networks
that regulate plant response to environmental conditions
such as: drought, disease, temperature and flowering
time.
The growing field of bioinformatics will be critical
to processing the volumes of data from the Plant Genome
Research Program. Two new NSF awards are focused on
developing tools to accurately manipulate the data
and make it accessible to the wider community. Researchers
will develop new computer algorithms to process data
and new interfaces for scientific manipulation of
the data.
Attachment: List of Plant
Genome Awards
Attachment
List of Plant Genome Awards
For complete listing of the awards and collaborations,
see: http://www.nsf.gov/bio/pubs/awards/genome01.htm
Boyce Thompson Institute, $3,995,267/4 yr; PI:
Johnathan Comstock
(partners: Cornell University, Oklahoma State University)
University of California Berkeley, $5,343,199/5
yr; PI: Sarah Hake
(partners: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Iowa State
University, University of Illinois Urbana, University
of Missouri Columbia)
University of California Berkeley, $1,532,663/5
yr; PI: Peggy Lemaux
(partners: Oregon State University, USDA-ARS)
University of California Davis, $5,803,691/4
yr; PI: Douglas Cook
(partners: The Institute for Genomic Research, The
Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, University of Minnesota
Twin Cities)
University of California Davis, $471,134/1 yr;
PI: Deborah Delmer
(partners: Alabama A&M University, Michigan Technological
University, Texas Tech University, University of Rhode
Island)
University of California Davis, $952,441/2 yr;
PI: Blake Meyer
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, $1,990,821/4
yr; PI: Robert Martienssen
Cornell University, $1,365,830/3 yr; PI: Susan
McCouch
Cornell University, $6,499,895/5 yr; PI: Steven
Tanksley
(partners: Boyce Thompson Institute, Clemson University)
University of Georgia, $1,132,318/4 yr; PI:
Peggy Ozias-Akins
(partner: Texas A&M University)
University of Georgia, $3,962,498/4 yr; PI:
Andrew Paterson
(partners: Clemson University, Cornell University)
University of Georgia, $3,576,195/3 yr; PI:
Lee Pratt
(partner: Texas A&M University)
Iowa State University, $648,549/3 yr; PI: Thomas
Peterson
Iowa State University, $4,227,981/5 yr; PI:
Kan Wang
(partner: North Carolina State University, Purdue
University, University of Wisconsin Madison)
Iowa State University, $158,996/2 yr; PI: Volker
Brendel
Kansas State University, $500,000/2 yr; PI:
Jan Leach
(partners: Iowa State University, Ohio State University,
University of California Davis)
Michigan State University, $5,072,963/5 yr;
PI: Michael Thomashow
(partners: Ohio State University, Oregon State University)
University of Minnesota Twin Cities, $3,081,245/4
yr; PI: Ronald Phillips
University of Missouri Columbia, $2,339,81/3
yr; PI: Kathleen Newton
(partners: University of Utah, Washington University)
North Carolina State University, $5,860,002/4
yr; PI: Ralph Dean
(partners: Clemson University Ohio State University
Purdue University, Texas A&M University, University
of Arizona, University of Kentucky)
Pennsylvania State University, $7,399,286/5
yr; PI: Claude DePamphilis
(partners: Cornell University, University of Alabama,
University of Florida University of Michigan)
University of Utah, $1,564,877/3 yr; PI: Gary
Drews
VA Polytechnic Inst & State University, $3,587,432/4
yr; PI: Pedro Mendes
(partners: The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, South
Eastern Oklahoma State University)
Yale University, $435,432/2 yr; PI: Vivian Irish
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