Collaborations in Transgenics

Does your lab have an interest in gene functional analysis through transgenics?

Is your lab interested in analyzing a cloned gene sequence through transgenics for any of the following applications:

• Promoter Analysis
• Trait Modifications
• Trait Improvement
• Mutational Analysis
• Genomics Applications

PLANTS WE CAN TRANSFORM

• Rice
• Turf (Creeping bentgrass, Colonial bentgrass, Tall Fescue, Velvet bentgrass, and Poa annua)
• Soybean
• Corn
• Arabidopsis

HOW DO WE ACCOMPLISH THIS?

• An Undergraduate Laboratory Course
• Formal Research Collaborations

COURSE BACKGROUND
Modern Techniques in Plant Biotechnology is a comprehensive two semester course which provides students with a project-based approach to plant biotechnology. In this course each student receives their own plant gene expression vector to stably introduce into plants. The goal for each student is to produce one hundred and fifty independent transgenic events and conduct molecular and phenotypic characterizations. The projects are not intended to be merely for training only but to yield meaningful scientific results for publications. The course has been designed in two sections, a laboratory component in which students learn the applied techniques for genetic engineering as well as methods of analysis of plant gene expression and a lecture component presenting current topics and approaches in plant biotechnology. Historical background into the principals of genetic engineering are presented during the lectures and many aspects of applied research areas, patent development, commercialization of a product and agricultural and environmental concerns are addressed. In the laboratory, state-of-the-art techniques for plant biotechnology are presented via intensive hands-on research.

Each student is given a unique gene construct to be introduced into a turf grass species, soybean, corn, or rice. The students conduct all the necessary cell culture and transgenic procedures in order to recover stably transformed callus by the end of the first semester. The second semester then involves the regeneration of plants from the transformed callus as well as the molecular analysis of tissue from those plants. With each successive year it is anticipated that the scope and breadth of the projects will change significantly based on new developments in the agricultural community.

SCOPE OF RESEARCH CONDUCTED
Laboratory based experiments include such techniques as Agrobacterium and biolistic-mediated transformation, tissue culture and DNA analysis of the transformants including PCR, Southern, RT-PCR and Western analysis. Each independent project is designed to present the course material while students are involved in research that is currently pertinent to the agricultural community. The scope of the projects is such that they should be able to be completed within the two semester time frame. Each project consists of two separate parts: the first being the introduction of the different constructs into embryogenic callus including the regeneration of transgenic plants; the second part consists on the molecular analysis of the transformants, including both phenotypic analysis and tissue specific gene expression.

OUR COLLABORATORS TO DATE:

• Dr. Steven Dellaporta
  Yale University, New Haven, CT
• Dr. Ajay Garg
  Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Dr. Ray Wu
  Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Dr. Michael Neff
  Washington University, St. Louis, MO
• Dr. Joanne Chory
  Salk Institute, San Diego, CA
• Dr. Hong Luo
  HybriGene Inc, Kingston, RI
• Dr. Joseph Wipff
  Pure Seed Testing Inc, Hubbard, OR

View us as one of your collaborators!

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dr. Albert Kausch
Phone: (401) 874.7121
Email: akausch@lifeedu.org

Dr. Joel Chandlee
Phone: (401) 874.2529
Email: jch9826u@postoffice.uri.edu