DURHAM, N.H. University of New Hampshire microbiologist Louis Tisa has received two grants totaling $498,115 to advance understanding of the actinorhizal plants, widespread woody plants with potential to enrich nutrient-poor and contaminated soils.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded Tisa, a professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical sciences, $399,000 to explore the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria Frankia and Casuarina, an actinorhizal plant. Frankia forms root nodule structures on Casuarina that convert atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, allowing Casuarina to access nitrogen a nutrient essential to plant growth from the air and to thrive in areas with nitrogen-poor soil.
Working with colleagues at the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement in Montpellier, France, Tisa is researching the signaling process in the relationship between Frankia and Casuarina that lets each organism identify as beneficial.
"The plant has to know that the microbe is a friend, not a foe, and the microbe needs to tell the plant, 'build me a structure,'" Tisa says. "What we're interested in is, what are the words? How are they talking?" Tisa and his collaborators, who together will have sequenced 10 Frankia genomes, know that the signal is chemical but not whether it is secreted or exists on the surface.
The USDA grant will help fund five graduate students and one undergraduate student working with Tisa. "We're excited. There are lots of preliminary results," he says. "If we can figure out how these things communicate, we can figure out how to enhance the performance of these trees." Tisa notes that actinorhizal plants pose a more sustainable solution to stabilizing and enriching soils than the introduction of chemicals.
His second grant, $99,115 from the U.S.-Egypt Science and Technology Joint Research program through the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, will fund outreach, exchange and co
'/>"/>
| Contact: Beth Potier beth.potier@unh.edu 603-862-1566 University of New Hampshire Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Prof. David Kisailus studies engineering and invention on the half-shell
2. Tufts University Prof. Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos named as AAAS Fellow
3. Rutgers Genetics receives $7.8 million for autism research
4. Herr receives Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment
5. UCI receives $5M from Edwards Lifesciences
6. Yu receives research funding from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation
7. UGA Odum School of Ecology professor receives grant to study West Nile Virus in NYC
8. UC Riverside biologist receives prestigious MacArthur Fellowship
9. UC Irvine receives $2.18M to explore nano advancements in DNA sequencing
10. Penn biochemist receives NIH New Innovators Award
11. NYUs Center for Genomics & Systems Biology receives $4.4 million NSF grant
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |