Acquisition of a New Transmission Electron Microscope, CCD Camera and Ultramicrotome for a Core Electron Microscopy Facility

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This award is for the purchase of a transmission electron microscope, a dedicated digital camera for image acquisition and a room temperature ultramicrotome for the multi-user Electron Microscopy Laboratory at New Mexico State University. These new set of instruments will significantly improve the research and student training on campus and will be used by a group of fifteen investigators from colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Home Economics, and Engineering. This research group includes senior investigators with well established research projects as well as junior faculty members who will benefit enormously from the instruments for their career development. The following research projects will make use of the acquired instruments: (1) plant-virus interaction in Arabidopsis thaliana, (2) evolutionary ecology of animal bacterial mutualisms, (3) investigation of assembly of Hepatitis C nucleocapsid-like particles and morphology of hepatocytes cultured on a rotary tissue culture system, (4) effect of vancomycin and house cleaners on cell wall morphology of house-cleaner tolerant Staphylococcus aureus mutants, (5) study of mechanosensory hair cell differentiation during organogenesis. Other projects include structural study of symbiotic fungi in native desert plants, membrane lipid endocytosis by Giardia lamblia, fuel cell technology, mine tailing remediation, subcellular localization of viral replication processes and storage protein bodies in plants, interaction of pathogenic fungus Cercospora beticola with sugar beet and safflower, interaction of soil-borne pathogens with economically important crops in Southern New Mexico, immunolocalization of various Zein proteins in alfalfa, investigation of regulation of the actinomysin and microtubule cytoskeletons for proper coordination of mitosis and cytokinesis in animal cells, and influence of environmental, insect, and herbicide stresses on crop and weed productivity. The newly acquired instruments will be made available to all potential users from various other departments across campus and they will be invaluable for the lab's strong teaching mission and local community outreach activities.