Plant Energy Metabolism and Carbon/Nitrogen Assimilation

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"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Solar energy harvested by plants provides the energy required for the major metabolic pathways within plant tissue (e.g. photosynthesis, photorespiration, respiration and nitrogen assimilation). Despite the importance of these metabolic processes, there are large gaps of understanding in how plant carbon and nitrogen assimilation interact with plant energy metabolism. Low nitrogen availability is one of the major factors limiting photosynthetic productivity and agricultural systems are currently sustained only by enormous nitrogen based chemical inputs. The over-application and ensuing runoff of these inputs leads to significant environmental degradation, and the production of these nitrogen based fertilizers releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases leading to further environmental change. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms controlling carbon and nitrogen assimilation and how changing climatic conditions will influence these processes is essential for predicting the feedback effects of photosynthetic organisms on climate change as well as future food and energy supplies. Reverse genetics, leaf gas exchange, nutrient uptake/feeding experiments, and mass spectrometry measurements will be used to understand how disruptions of key steps in leaf metabolism influence the coordination of energy flow between these metabolic processes. High school, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students will be taught integrative approaches to plant biology, broadening their training and learning opportunities in scientific research. Additionally, new partnerships between Washington State University (WSU) and local high schools will be formed, providing young students with greater access to the scientific process early in their educational training. The investigators aim to increase the participation of underrepresented undergraduates and graduate students in the laboratory through university programs promoting research opportunities for under-represented minorities and women at WSU. Additionally, websites will be developed to present the outcomes of this research to a broader audience.