Research - Applied Science

Research in the Buchanan Laboratory current focuses on
(1) Regulation of chloroplast enzymes, emphasizing the thylakoid lumen. Sheng Luan collaborates on this research
(2) Improvement in the nutritional properties of sorghum, concentrating on increasing the digestibility of protein and starch and on the presence and availability of amino acids. This project complements ongoing work on rapidly germinating barley and hypoallergenic wheat. Peggy Lemaux collaborates on the research with cereals.

The Coates Lab focuses on environmental microbiology: applied microbiology and bioremediation. We investigate removal of radioactive toxic metals, carcinogenic petroleum-based hydrocarbon contaminants, and toxic munitions byproducts from the environment. Recently, we identified dominant groups of bacteria that can transform perchlorate wastes into innocuous chloride, isolated and characterized more than 40 such bacteria, and identified the common biochemical pathway and genetic systems involved.

The Jackson Lab researches how viruses elicit plant diseases, and devises mechanisms for disease control in transgenic plants. We work with three viruses: a plus sense monopartite RNA virus, tomato bushy stunt virus; a plus sense tripartite RNA virus, barley stripe mosaic virus; and a minus strand plant rhabdovirus, sonchus yellow net virus. We use genetic and biochemical analysis to investigate replication and movement of these viruses and to determine virus-host interactions culminating in disease.

The research objectives of the Lemaux Lab include the development and use of genetic transformation systems for monocotyledonous species, such as Triticum aestivum, Zea mays, Avena sativa, Hordeum vulgare, Oryzae sativa, Festuca spp., Dactylis glomerata, and Poa pratensis. Our long-term objective is to use transformed cereals to explore basic biological questions as well as to understand and improve crop characteristics.

Our research group studies aspects of epiphytic bacteria that live on healthy plants' surfaces, emphasizing bacteria active in ice nucleation, causing frost damage to plants. We also study plant pathogenic bacteria that inhabit plant surfaces before infection. We use molecular genetic and ecological approaches to study how epiphytic bacteria interact with other microorganisms on plants, and with the plants on which they live. We seek to better understand adaptations epiphytic bacteria have evolved to exploit this unique habitat.

Photosynthetic organisms use a repair mechanism, entailing disassembly of inactive photosystem-II units and selective degradation and replacement of damaged D1/32 kD reaction-center protein. We apply DNA insertional mutagenesis to isolate and characterize photosystem-II repair mutants, identify the genes and enzymes involved, and investigate intermediate photosystem-II configurations. We also produce genetically engineered microalgae with enhanced photosynthetic productivity and hydrogen production in mass culture.

We research molecular mechanisms by which light regulates gene expression in plants, focusing on the phytochromes family of photoreceptors. The photoreceptor molecule acts as a biological switch that upon perception of the light signal, triggers changes in transcription detectable within 5 minutes of stimulus. We recently developed a novel light-switchable gene promoter system potentially usable in any light-accessible eukaryotic cell system for rapid, conditional induction or repression of expression.

We study the pattern and process of fungal evolution, both to understand the process and to make fungi the best models for evolutionary biology. We focus on the key evolutionary event that forms the tree of life: speciation. Recently we have documented species divergences, compared phylogenetic and biological species recognition, addressed the timing of species divergence, and evaluated selection acting on potentially adaptive genes. Now, we are using genetics and genomics to find genes that maintain species and facilitate adaptation.

The Terry Lab researches how to improve the efficiency with which plants remove and detoxify toxic metals and metalloids like Arsenic, Chromium, Lead, Selenium, Mercury, and Cadmium from contaminated soil, sediments, and water. For example, many plant species detoxify Chromium (VI), a very toxic form of the element, to essentially non-toxic Chromium (III). Some plants can also convert toxic forms of Selenium, e.g., selenate and selenite, to volatile but non-toxic dimethylselenide.