Platform for plant growth, development and stress biology research

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We request support for a platform of instruments essential to the NSERC-funded research programs of five biologists and one chemist. The biologists have expertise in plant cell and molecular biology, plant genetics, plant physiology, plant nutrition and plant biochemistry. The chemist develops probes for next generation magnetic resonance imaging of biomolecules, with an interest to develop and apply such technology for plant stress biology research. A collaborative interest of this multidisciplinary, dynamic and cohesive group is to understand how plant metabolism, nutrition, growth and development are impacted by common environmental stresses such as drought, high salt and extreme temperature. For example, one current focus is to elucidate the means by which mitochondrial respiration interacts with and aids photosynthetic metabolism during periods of drought. Efforts are also being put toward understanding the role of plant hormones in defining seed susceptibility to high temperature, understanding the protein quality control systems that enable plants to withstand high temperature and other environmental stresses, and work examining ion transport mechanisms in a variety of crop and model plant species under both optimal and nutrient stress conditions. The over-arching goal of this group of principal investigators is to identify means to improve the performance of plants growing under sub-optimal field conditions.