Equipment for a Modern Undergraduate Laboratory in Plant Biology

该项目提供现代化的实验设备，以建立现代细胞与分子植物学教学计划。两门高级实验室课程受到影响：植物生理学和植物生长与发育。植物生理学目前正在首席研究员(一年前受聘填补该系在现代植物实验室科学方面的空白)的手中进行彻底的翻新。植物生长发育是一门新课程，于1987-1988年间首次开设。该设备配备了两门完整的实验室课程，使学生能够观察植物生物学的基本原理，并在目前植物科学实验室研究中使用的方法方面获得经验。作为这项资助的直接结果，学生们有机会在他们的植物过程研究中使用以下技术：整个叶片/整个植物水平的荧光和气体交换，细胞器的分离和表征，亚细胞器的分离，溶液中的极谱气体分析，蛋白质的电泳分离和扫描密度定量，免疫化学分析，包括Western blotts和酶联免疫吸附分析，以及体外翻译。植物分子和细胞生物学目前是密集的研究领域，引起了极大的兴奋。该项目的一个目标是将一些刺激传递到地方一级。其中一些设备也被生物专业的其他高级实验室课程使用，他们中的大多数人在研究生院或专业学校继续接受正规教育。接受资助的机构正在将NSF的奖励与从非联邦来源获得的同等金额相匹配。

This project is providing modern laboratory equipment to establish a contemporary cell and molecular plant science teaching program. Two upper-level laboratory courses are affected: Plant Physiology, and Plant Growth and Development. Plant Physiology currently is undergoing complete renovation at the hands of the principal investigator (who was hired a year ago to fill the department's void in modern plant laboratory sciences). Plant Growth and Development is a new course, offered for the first time in 1987- 1988. The equipment is fitting out two entire laboratory courses in a manner that allows students to observe fundamental principles in plant biology and to gain experience in methodologies currently employed in plant science laboratory research. As direct result of this grant, students are having an opportunity to utilize the following techniques in their study of plant processes: fluorescence and gas exchange at the whole leaf/whole plant level, organella isolation and characterization, suborganella fractionation, polarographic gas assay in solution, electrophoretic separation of proteins and quantification by scanning densitometry, immunochemical assays including Western blots and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays, and in vitro translations. Plant molecular and cell biology currently are areas of intense research efforts which are generating a great deal of excitement. An objective of this project is to transmit some of that stimulation to the local level. Some of the equipment also is being used in other upper-level laboratory courses by biology majors, a majority of whom continue their formal education in either graduate or professional schools. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.