The National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences awarded Colorado State University a $559,796 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) to study Mitonuclear Interactions and Coevolution in the Dynamic Plant Mitochondrial tRNA Pool. The grant will fund research from January 2021 through December 2023 exploring how plant mitochondrial tRNAs interact and coevolve with mitochondrial proteins. The Biological Sciences program supports...
This $800,000 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will support research at Colorado State University to investigate the effects of holoparasitism on plant organellar translation and tRNA metabolism. The research will analyze how the loss of photosynthesis and parasitic lifestyle of holoparasitic plants impacts the bacterial-like translation machinery in plant mitochondria and...
This $534,635 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to investigate the genomic, cellular, and physiological effects of whole genome duplications on organismal energy production in plants. The research aims to enhance understanding of the genetic underpinnings of plant energy production, particularly how the balance between nuclear, mitochondrial,...
This $794,457 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will support the development of new genetic analysis tools. The goal is to incorporate molecular and cellular biology knowledge, such as gene expression patterns and regulatory networks, directly into statistical models used to map genes, predict traits, and simulate changes in the genotype-to-phenotype relationships. The research will be conducted using simulated...
This $988,130 project grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program focuses on advancing understanding of the evolutionary history and ecological adaptations of the Montiaceae plant family. Led by researchers at Yale University, the project will construct a comprehensive phylogeny (evolutionary tree) for the Montiaceae, which contains ~250 species of annual and perennial herbs found across diverse environments like deserts, mountains, and Mediterranean regions....
This National Science Foundation Project Grant award of $432,000 provides funding from September 1, 2022 through August 31, 2025 under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) to investigate genome fractionation in land plants through comparative genomics research. Dr. Sylvia Kinosian will conduct this research as a postdoctoral fellow hosted by Dr. Michael Barker at the University of Arizona. The research will leverage newly available fern and lycophyte genome sequences...
This $638,454 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund research at Dartmouth College to define the functions of an essential, conserved mitochondrial protein that links the organelle's matrix to the cytoplasm. Over three years, the researchers will investigate how specific mitochondrial components integrate mitochondrial function within plant cells, focusing on the roles of ATAD3 proteins that span the inner and outer...
This $341,473 Project Grant award, funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), supports research to develop new methods for measuring plant traits using leaf spectroscopy on herbarium specimens. The primary objective is to enable large-scale assessments of how plant functional traits and their combinations have evolved across different biomes, such as rainforests, savannas, and deserts. The research will generate new phylogenetic data and...
This $959,997 federal Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), supports collaborative research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to develop improved methods for plant transformation and regeneration. The research aims to provide a thorough understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying regeneration in maize, a key crop that provides a substantial portion of human caloric intake. By exploiting a "morphogenic-based"...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences Program (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant will provide $240,000 in funding to support a postdoctoral research fellowship focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms governing the remarkable adaptability of aquatic plants. The research aims to elucidate the genetic underpinnings of heterophylly (the ability to produce different leaf forms) and facultative CAM photosynthesis in the model plant Littorella uniflora. The project will employ...