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Scientist lands funding to research cash crop |
| By
Matt Lockwood |
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Feb 8, 2008 |
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How many people do you personally know who farm and provide food for others?
Anyone?
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| Dr. John Gray showed off his display of several types of corn. The associate professor of biological sciences is one of the recipients of a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Project to investigate the genes that regulate corn growth and development. |
At the beginning of the 20th century, one person provided food for about three others. Today, one person out of 100 provides food for the other 99.
That’s possible because of advances in machinery, fertilizers and plant science during the last century, known as the Green Revolution.
Thankfully, for those of us who rely on Kroger more than Caterpillar, the next big advances in agriculture are upon us, and The University of Toledo is playing an exciting role.
At this month’s 50th anniversary of the Maize Genetics Conference in Washington, D.C., a first draft of the corn genome will be revealed.
“That’s significant because corn is the largest cash crop in Ohio and the United States,” said Dr. John Gray, associate professor of biological sciences.
It’s also big news for Gray because he is one of the recipients of a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Plant Genome Research Project, aimed at using genomic tools to investigate the genes that regulate corn growth and development. Gray will collaborate with professors at Ohio State University on the project.
“Having the genome in front of you is like having a very big book of instructions,” Gray said. “The genome for corn is as big as the human genome. Now we have to read it, and in order to improve nature, we must understand it.”
The NSF is supporting the research to gain a better understanding of economically important crops like corn, rice, sorghum and sugar cane, which are similar genetically.
Gray’s project has three main goals: To make a collection of regulatory genes from corn, to identify the genes that are turned on or off by the regulatory genes, to figure out what those regulatory genes do, and to develop a Web site, www.grassius.org, that will serve as a database so researchers can share their findings and expedite breakthroughs.
“Breeding crops has been an art; we’re trying to take out the guess work and make it more of a science,” Gray said.
The NSF also wants education to be a component of the corn research, and Gray has already integrated this project with the 50 undergraduate students taking his molecular genetics laboratory course.
“I want to give undergraduates an opportunity to do experiments in which they don’t know the outcome,” Gray said. “We have students studying genes that have never been studied before, so when they write up their lab reports they’re writing up original findings.”
Of those 50 undergrads, eight are performing honors projects for a year related to the corn genome. They are utilizing advanced research techniques such as bioinformatics, DNA cloning and database mining.
Gray knows not all of the students will go into plant biology, but he said they’ll take their research skills and a new appreciation for modern agriculture with them.
“We forget how important it is to grow food; this gives us an opportunity to keep students aware,” Gray said.
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