Project Grant 0920287

This three-year National Science Foundation Project Grant of $1.4 million supports research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to characterize mutant strains of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae that are unable to properly maintain the biotrophic interface or membrane integrity during growth in host plant cells. The goal is to uncover novel cellular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms governing rice infection. Results may provide insights into fundamental concepts of plant-microbe...

This federal Project Grant award for $478,269.00, provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), supports fundamental scientific research on the cellular mechanisms of plasma membrane stabilization and repair in plants. The primary goal of this 5-year research project is to characterize the molecular processes governing plasma membrane repair in plant cells, particularly the role of MLO genes in...

This cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service will fund the development and validation of fungicide resistance monitoring tools for Botrytis species in specialty crops. Michigan State University will receive $133,735 to enhance fungicide resistance management through improved detection and monitoring of resistance development. Specifically, the university will develop molecular markers for fungicide resistance to FRAC groups 2, 7, 9, 11, and 12,...

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded a $415,520 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to the College of William & Mary. This 3-year grant supports research to investigate the genetic basis of virulence traits in opportunistic fungal pathogens and how these traits may arise through "accidental virulence" or "coincidental selection" in the environment. The research will screen over 1,000...

This Project Grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA 10.310), will support research aimed at understanding plant immune recognition and response to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. The $958,480 award to the University of California, Berkeley, will fund a 3-year project to investigate how wild tomato plants recognize the pathogen's needle-like syringe, which is used to inject effector proteins that...

This Project Grant award of $769,792 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Federal Grant Program supports research to clarify the mechanisms of pathogen effector secretion in host plant cells. The project aims to better understand how fungal and oomycete pathogens, including the rice-destroying Magnaporthe oryzae, suppress host plant defenses by deploying secreted proteins (effectors) during early infection. The research seeks to identify pathogen...

This federal Project Grant award for $943,750.00 was provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859). The grant supports fundamental scientific research on "Peptide-Receptor Signaling in Plant-Microbe Interactions" at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA. The research addresses key questions about how cells make decisions based on diverse environmental inputs, how they...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $759,465 in funding to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to conduct research on the molecular mechanisms of stomatal CO2 signal transduction in plants. The research aims to identify proteins and genes of a recently discovered CO2 sensor in order to determine the cellular signaling processes through which carbon dioxide regulates plant water loss and CO2 intake. The...

This three-year National Science Foundation Project Grant of $626,850 supports research to develop a holistic understanding of plant cuticle assembly through synthetic biology approaches. Funded under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), the grantee—the University of Nebraska—will engineer yeast and plant root systems lacking natural cuticles to model cuticle metabolism pathways. Researchers will refactor transcriptional networks and metabolic processes to produce synthetic cuticle...

The National Science Foundation Division of Integrative Organismal Systems awarded a $375,000 Project Grant to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center for research titled "NOVEL ANTIFUNGAL SYMBIOTIC PEPTIDES: MODES OF ACTION AND CONTROL OF FUNGAL PATHOGENS." The three-year award beginning June 1, 2021 will fund research under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to investigate modes of action and control of fungal pathogens through novel antifungal symbiotic peptides. The...