$5 million NSF grant will fund study of origins of DNA replication in plants
Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin, Ph.D. student Randall Schultz and Dr. Bill Thompson will use genomic techniques in a study that could yield information important to genetic engineering technologies.
(Photo by Daniel Kim)
(Photo by Daniel Kim)
What began as a class exercise has produced a $5 million grant to a scientific team that includes researchers from N.C. State University to study where replication begins on DNA, the molecule that contains the instructions for assembling all forms of life.
The funding is being provided by the Plant Genome Panel of the National Science Foundation, said Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin, professor of molecular and structural biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a member of the team.
Hanley-Bowdoin said the project grew out a class exercise by Randall Shultz, a Ph.D. student in functional genomics, working with Dr. Bill Thompson, professor of botany, genetics and crop science. Thompson also is involved in the effort. Shultz prepared a research proposal for a class taught by Hanley-Bowdoin. She suggested the proposal was worth submitting to the National Science Foundation, and after two years of preliminary work and contributions from several other colleagues, the project was funded.
The grant will fund studies designed to determine where DNA replication begins on plant chromosomes. Chromosomes are made of DNA, which is composed of chemicals called nucleotides. There are millions of nucleotides on a typical chromosome. Cells divide and produce new cells when the chromosomes unwind, replicate and reform to build new chromosomes and cells identical to the original.
Hanley-Bowdoin said studies funded by the grant will use genomic techniques to determine the nucleotide sequences and chromosome structures where a cell begins DNA replication. While the research is basic, it could lead to the kind of understanding that will be important to the next generation of genetic engineering technologies, which may include new methods of directing gene expression, targeted gene insertion and construction of artificial chromosomes.
Little is known about the origins of DNA replication, particularly in plants. The research will examine one chromosome of Arabidopsis, a plant often used in scientific studies, and half of one chromosome of rice, trying to determine which parts of each chromosome are active when replication begins.
The research is a collaboration among scientists from N.C. State, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., and Clemson University. The project will be directed by Thompson, working closely with Hanley-Bowdoin. Other participating N.C. State faculty are Dr. George Allen in the College's Department of Crop Science and Dr. Bryon Sosinski in the College's Department of Horticultural Science. Sosinski directs N.C. State's Genome Research Lab.
- Dave Caldwell
The funding is being provided by the Plant Genome Panel of the National Science Foundation, said Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin, professor of molecular and structural biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a member of the team.
Hanley-Bowdoin said the project grew out a class exercise by Randall Shultz, a Ph.D. student in functional genomics, working with Dr. Bill Thompson, professor of botany, genetics and crop science. Thompson also is involved in the effort. Shultz prepared a research proposal for a class taught by Hanley-Bowdoin. She suggested the proposal was worth submitting to the National Science Foundation, and after two years of preliminary work and contributions from several other colleagues, the project was funded.
The grant will fund studies designed to determine where DNA replication begins on plant chromosomes. Chromosomes are made of DNA, which is composed of chemicals called nucleotides. There are millions of nucleotides on a typical chromosome. Cells divide and produce new cells when the chromosomes unwind, replicate and reform to build new chromosomes and cells identical to the original.
Hanley-Bowdoin said studies funded by the grant will use genomic techniques to determine the nucleotide sequences and chromosome structures where a cell begins DNA replication. While the research is basic, it could lead to the kind of understanding that will be important to the next generation of genetic engineering technologies, which may include new methods of directing gene expression, targeted gene insertion and construction of artificial chromosomes.
Little is known about the origins of DNA replication, particularly in plants. The research will examine one chromosome of Arabidopsis, a plant often used in scientific studies, and half of one chromosome of rice, trying to determine which parts of each chromosome are active when replication begins.
The research is a collaboration among scientists from N.C. State, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., and Clemson University. The project will be directed by Thompson, working closely with Hanley-Bowdoin. Other participating N.C. State faculty are Dr. George Allen in the College's Department of Crop Science and Dr. Bryon Sosinski in the College's Department of Horticultural Science. Sosinski directs N.C. State's Genome Research Lab.
- Dave Caldwell