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Functional genomics of the root vascular system.


EMSL Project ID
51846

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) management will be a critical feature for the production of bioenergy crops, which are likely to be grown on sub-optimal soils low in N content. One solution to these issues is to employ N2-fixing crops, either for biomass production or to enrich the soil. Alternatively, an increased understanding of plant N use efficiency may also present ways to boost plant growth under limiting N conditions. This proposal focuses on the critical role of the vascular system in mediating the movement of carbon, nitrogen and signaling molecules that regulate the N2-fixing process, as well as impacting nitrogen use efficiency. Until relatively recently, direct sampling of the plant vascular system has been technically difficult. However, new methods for imaging, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics now make it possible for high-resolution, single-cell analysis of the plant vascular components. This multidisciplinary proposal seeks to employ the full repertoire of these tools to examine the plant response to growth under four different N regimes; that is, growth with nitrate, ammonia, urea and under N2-fixing conditions. The data obtained will inform future research to improve N use efficiency, while also yielding new information that may be applicable to understanding vascular tissue function in all plants.

Project Details

Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2021-10-01
End Date
2023-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Gary Stacey
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia

Co-Investigator(s)

Dong Xu
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia

Team Members

Bruna Montes Luz
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia

Jinrong Wan
Institution
University of Missouri-Columbia

Ufok Essien
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia

Li Su
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia

Lei Jiang
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia

Jaehyo Song
Institution
University of Missouri - Columbia