Equipment for Undergraduate Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory Course

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This award to the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Michigan State University will provide funds to buy equipment for a new advanced undergraduate laboratory course in modern plant physiology and molecular biology. Such a course is not currently offered at MSU, even though there are many students studying diverse types of plant science who could benefit from such a course. The new course will replace two laboratories that are currently part of two advanced plant physiology courses; these will continue as just lecture courses. The award provides funds to buy eight types of equipment: one high-speed centrifuge and rotors, six gel electrophoresis units, two rotary evaporators, four pH meters, one scanning spectrophotometer, two shaking water baths, two protein and DNA blotting apparatuses, and one scintillation counter. These will be used to conduct laboratory sessions devoted to Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer; bacterial transformation; purification, electrophoresis, and transfer blotting of plant DNA, RNA, and proteins, and detection by hybridization with DNA probes and antibodies; induction of gene expression by plant hormones; enzyme assays; and enzyme- linked immunoassay of plant hormones. The current available teaching equipment in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology is very inadequate for the proposed course. The grantee institution is matching this NSF award with funds from non-Federal sources.