Six research teams are expanding current knowledge through projects funded by the ISU Plant Sciences Institute.

Iowa State’s Plant Sciences Institute allocated $258,000 in start-up funds for six research projects in plant science extending for the next two years.

Madan Bhattacharyya, assistant professor in agronomy, hopes to find a solution to the soybean root disease called Phytophythora that is costing farmers millions.

Bhattacharyya said he is trying to isolate a protein in the plant that causes the soybean plant to react by killing its own cells.

“We want to see which part of the protein is involved in causing the cell death in the soybean plant,” Bhattacharyya said.

Bhattacharyya said it’s estimated that $250 million in crops were lost to the disease last year.

“Our long-term goal is to save the money of lost soybean crops,” Bhattacharyya said.

Charles Hurburgh, professor in agriculture and biosystems engineering, and his team of researchers will use the money to continue their research in the area of near infrared technology.

“Our goal is to be able to successfully identify genetically transformed products, grain variety and to prove, in cases necessary, that genetic transmissions are present,” Hurburgh said.

Near infrared technology, a process in which plants can be identified by using light waves, has been known to scientists since 1983, but to identify if the plant has been genetically modified is new ground, and Hurburgh is right in the midst of it, he said.

“The [Plant Sciences Institute] funding will allow us to demonstrate some things to make it possible for us to get other funding of a larger nature,” Hurburgh said.

Hurburgh works with three staff members, six graduate students and more than ten undergraduate students during the year.

Xun Gu, associate professor in agronomy, has also received a grant from the Plant Sciences Institute.

Gu and his team will use the funding to further their research in system biology.

“We are developing a new approach for this research,” Gu said.

System biology is a new field of study that looks at complex biological systems as a whole, Gu said.

Instead of breaking down complex systems into categories, Gu is looking at the system in a larger perspective, as a whole, he said.

“System biology is the umbrella, we try to incorporate data together to have a better understanding of biology,” Gu said.

Volker Brendel, professor in zoology and genetics, received a grant from the Plant Sciences Institute two years ago for his research in gene expression in maize and arabidopsis.

He said the money he received from the Plant Sciences Institute helped open the door to more funding.

“Without money you can’t do research,” Brendel said. “We got a much larger grant because of the money from [the Plant Sciences Institute].”