Long and Medium-Term Research: Genetic Engineering of Sterility in Plants

长期和中期研究：植物不育基因工程这个奖项是根据长期和中期研究计划颁发的。外国卓越中心的中期研究，使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外公认的卓越研究中心进行三到十二个月的研究。该项目的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并提供了使用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件的机会。该奖项将支持史蒂文·H·施特劳斯博士与澳大利亚堪培拉CSIRO植物工业部的W·J·皮科克博士和E·S·丹尼斯博士进行为期12个月的博士后研究访问，以研究植物基因工程不育的方法。这将通过提高杂交种的高效生产、促进营养生长和防止工程基因进入自然种群而使农业和林业受益。施特劳斯博士将专注于从油菜中分离出生殖特异性启动子。合作者将使用消减和差异杂交技术来分离转录本，作为在生殖芽发育期间特异表达的cdna克隆。他们还将使用其他物种特有的生殖特异基因来促进文库的筛选。一旦它们在Northern分析中显示出足够的特异性水平，它们将被用作探针来筛选拟南芥的基因组文库，它们的序列将被用来构建引物，从而能够分离出核酶(由植物工业实验室开发)，这些核酶可以减少繁殖所必需基因的表达。导致植物不育。奖励建议提供资金，用于支付国际旅行、家属津贴和为美国本土机构提供250美元的固定行政津贴。

Long & Medium-Term Research: Genetic Engineering of Sterility in Plants This award is made under the Program for Long- & Medium-Term Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months abroad at research centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Steven H. Strauss with Drs. W.J. Peacock and E.S. Dennis of the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia, to study methods for genetically engineering sterility in plants, which would benefit agriculture and forestry by improving efficient production of hybrids, enhancing vegetative growth, and preventing engineered genes from entering natural populations. Dr. Strauss will focus on the isolation of reproductive-specific promoters from Brassica. The collaborators will use techniques of subtractive and differential hybridization to isolate transcripts as cDNA clones that are expressed specifically during reproductive bud development. They will also use reproductive-specific genes characterized in other species to facilitate screening of libraries. Once they have cDNAs which show adequate levels of specificity in northern analyses, they will be used as probes to screen genomic libraries of Arabidopsis, and their sequences used to construct primers to enable isolation of ribozymes (developed by Plant Industry laboratories) that diminish expression of genes essential for reproduction, causing plant sterility. The award recommendation provides funds to cover international travel, dependents' allowance, and a flat administrative allowance of $250 for the U.S. home institution.