Life Sciences Professor Receives Collaborative Grant from the US Department of Agriculture
Dr. Jeffery Shen and Dr. Paul Rushton (University of Virginia, Charlottesville) were awarded a $343,900 grant by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to study plant resistance to drought stress.
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Dr. Jeffery Shen |
Drs. Shen and Rushton will study the role played by a group of proteins (the WRKY transcription factors) in modulating stress responses in plants. The main goals of their project are to identify all WRKY genes that regulate drought responses in rice and soybean, and to develop bioinformatics tools to identify similar genes in other crop plants. Specifically, Drs. Shen and Rushton will assess which WRKY genes modulate responses to water stress by employing an oligoarray containing WRKY genes from more than 30 species of plants. They will develop bioinformatics tools to determine whether genes related to WRKY genes also regulate water stress responses, and whether drought-responsive WRKY genes share promoter elements (DNA sequences that govern "when, where and how much" a given gene is activated). This research project has the potential to protect food supplies from changing climatic conditions and to enhance economic opportunities for agricultural producers.