Plant Growth Facility

该合同将支持8个植物生长室和计算机监控系统的采购，这将为马里兰大学细胞生物学和分子遗传学的一个新的多用户植物生长设施提供基础。该设施将用于研究模式植物拟南芥的研究人员，但要解决各种问题。这些包括液泡离子泵和乙烯受体的功能，用于细胞壁形成和重塑的葡萄糖酶编码基因的控制和功能，以及信使RNA的剪接。拟南芥已经越来越多地被用作基础植物生物学研究的实验材料，因为它具有完整的基因组序列和大量突变体收集的可用性，广泛的数据库和强大的新分子遗传学工具。这些实验室将使这些研究人员可用的生长面积增加3到4倍，并将提供对日长、光照和温度的精确控制，所有这些都可以影响旨在增加植物发育、生理学和遗传学知识的实验结果。

This award supports the acquisition of eight plant growth chambers and computerized monitoring system that will provide the foundation of a new multi-user plant growth facility in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland. The facility will be used by investigators whose work with the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, but address diverse problems. These include the function of vacuolar ion pumps and ethylene receptors, the control and function of genes encoding gluconases used in cell-wall formation and remodeling, and splicing of messenger RNA. Arabidopsis has been increasingly adopted as the experimental material of choice for studies of basic plant biology because of the knowledge of the complete genomic sequence and the availability of large mutant collections, extensive databases and powerful new molecular genetic tools. These chambers will increase the growth area available to these researchers by 3 to 4-fold, and will provide precise control of day-length, light and temperature, all of which can affect the outcome of experiments intended to increase knowledge of plant development, physiology and genetics.