Five research grants totaling $5.5 million were given to several ISU faculty for further research into plant science by the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Program.

The foundation awarded 24 competitive grants this year to Iowa State, tying Iowa State with Cornell University for the most grants received.

The goal of the science foundation’s program is to understand the function of genes in plants of environmental or economic importance. Specifically, the program was formed to understand how the entire genetic information (genome) of a plant affects its growth and most important traits.

Kan Wang, director of the Plant Transformation Facility, will lead a team of scientists from several other major universities in a study to improve genetic modification technology with the grant of $4.2 million for the five-year project.

Wang is studying how to improve the existing technology of plant transformation in corn, which is when a desirable gene from an unrelated corn line is introduced into another.

Currently, plant transformation is highly problematic, with many dangerous side effects associated with the process.

“The most undesirable feature of recent transformation technology is that we cannot control the location of where the gene is inserted into the genome,” Wang said.

This means a gene could be inserted inside another, splitting the host gene and making it useless, she said.

For instance, a gene for herbicide resistance could break apart an essential gene for fruit production when it is inserted, resulting in no harvest for the farmer. Or the gene could be added to part of the plant’s genome that is rarely read, meaning the gene would never be used.

Wang said scientists also need to find a way to limit the number of gene copies added to the host plant. When many copies of a gene in a plant are present, they can interfere with each other to create really bizarre plants, she said.

Wang and her team have a sizable task ahead of them in perfecting this technology, but the grant will give her the resources to experiment freely with cutting-edge technology.

“I don’t know of anyone in the community who has received so large a grant for improving technology from a federal agency,” Wang said.

Thomas Peterson, associate professor of zoology and genetics, is determined to use his $648,549 grant to unravel the secrets corn hides in its genetic code.

His three-year project involves speeding up the sequencing of corn’s genetic code, which is difficult due to the nature of corn’s genetic makeup.

“Corn is the next big organism on tap for being sequenced, but this is taking some time,” Peterson said.

The majority of the DNA in plants is repetitive “junk” DNA with no apparent function – DNA that doesn’t affect the plant’s life or change its appearance. Plants are bad at getting rid of this DNA, so large sections of it can accumulate.

Sorting through the genome to find the actual genes buried in the babble of non-information slows down the process of DNA mapping tremendously.

One way researchers speed up this process is by deleting big parts of that “junk” DNA but current methods have many flaws.

Peterson’s method shows a great deal of promise with minimal side effects.

“Our way is a process that occurs naturally in the plant. The other ways to get deletions are to use physical mutagens, like x-rays, or chemical mutagens,” Peterson said. “But these can cause mutations that are harmful and non-specific in what they take out.”

Peterson takes advantage of what are called transposable elements, or “jumping genes,” which are found naturally in corn and most other organisms. The jumping genes can cut themselves out of their normal position in the genome and move to another location. Peterson’s research team is placing these elements near each other -sandwiching a non-coding sequence – so when the two jumping genes leave they take the unwanted DNA with them.

“I get credit for this project because I’m the boss, but it was really my graduate student, Jianbo Zhang, who discovered the phenomenon and deserves a great deal of the credit,” Peterson said.

With only the functional DNA to sort through, the genetic sequencing of corn will be much faster.

Volker Brendel, professor of zoology and genetics, received a $158,996 two-year grant to create a database of plant genes that can be accessed through the Internet by the world’s plant scientists.

Patrick Schnable, professor of agronomy, was awarded a $500,000 two-year grant to study how the rice genome reacts to disease.

“Rice is a model organism for study because its genome has been sequenced and is closely related to corn,” Schnable said. “Any information we learn can be indirectly applied to our understanding of corn.”

All five researchers were quite pleased with their grants but several had some reservations.

“I feel very pressured as a result of the money,” Wang said. “We have to deliver.”