A National Science Foundation grant award for $3,230,632.
The Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture is proud to announce a National Science Foundation grant award for $3,230,632.
The project titled "An Integrated Study of Nitrogen Cycling and Storage in Poplar" is funded through the Plant Genome Program of the National Science Foundation. This is a 4-year project funded for $3,230,632 and involves a interdisciplinary research team from the University of Maryland consisting of Dr. Gary Coleman (PI, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture), Dr. Ganesh Sriram (Co-PI, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering), Dr. Jianhua Zhu (Co-PI, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture) and Dr. George Ude (Co-PI, Bowie State University).
The overall objective of this project is to elucidate the metabolic, regulatory and signaling pathways and networks that regulate nitrogen storage and cycling in poplar. Poplar is a fast-growing, temperate deciduous tree that has potential to be an economically viable, non-food source for biofuels and biomaterials. Nitrogen storage and cycling is an important trait that has been identified to have the potential to enhance sustainable yield and quality of biomass from trees. Nitrogen storage and cycling is also a fundamental process important to the adaptation, growth and productivity of trees. Advancing our knowledge of tree nitrogen storage and cycling is necessary to understand how trees grow and how their biomass is partitioned, as well as how they compete and function in an ecosystem.
The project will employ genome-wide transcript profiling, isotope-assisted metabolic flux analysis and characterization of the phosphorylation status of proteins. By integrating the results of these analyses, candidate genes and transcription factors that regulate nitrogen storage and cycling will be identified, which will then be used in functional studies that rely on reverse genetic approaches. This project will provide an unprecedented view of how nitrogen storage and cycling is coordinated in trees and is expected to transform our knowledge towards a genomic understanding of the regulatory pathways and networks that govern poplar nitrogen storage and cycling. This knowledge is expected to advance and accelerate the potential development of trees with improved nitrogen use that will enhance productivity and sustainability, while addressing future energy needs.
The project will also integrate research and education by training graduate students and postdocs, as well as by establishing a genomic training lab at Bowie State University (BSU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Maryland. This genomic training lab will enable establishing the lab component of a proposed course "Applied Biotechnology" at BSU.
An intensive summer training course will also be established at BSU with participation by both BSU and UMD faculty and offered to undergraduate students at nearby HBCUs and high school teachers in Prince George County, Maryland, dramatically enhancing their competitiveness in the biotechnology job market and postgraduate education programs.
Each year, three students, who are graduates from these training programs, will be selected for research internships in one of the PI/Co-PI's labs at the University of Maryland. This will expose the BSU and other HBCU undergraduates to the post-graduate program opportunities at University of Maryland.
