Early this summer, 17 undergraduates descended on Cornell University from colleges across the nation. Their mission: to learn more about plants and whether plant science is for them.

They did so by enrolling in summer internships through the Plant Genome Research Program (PGRP), which encompasses 30 labs at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI), Cornell, and the United States Department of Agriculture Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory. The students live on campus and work with a mentor in a lab for 10 weeks. They also attend weekly seminars on various plant science fields and receive a crash course in what a scientist's life is all about. On Aug. 4 they will present the results of their research projects at a symposium at BTI.

Cory Ellison, left, and his mentor, BTI postdoctoral researcher Jinyuan Liu, at work in the lab.

"This is my first experience in a research setting, and it's been really good so far," said intern Cory Ellison, a senior at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio. He works in BTI scientist Maria Harrison's lab using transgenic mutants of Medicago truncatula, a relative of alfalfa, to study the effects of genetic modification on genes that enable the plant to team up with certain soil fungi. These fungi set up shop in plants' roots, helping them take up phosphate
and other nutrients more effectively. By improving this plant-fungi relationship, researchers could help cut the amount of fertilizer farmers need to put on their fields, thus reducing pollution from agricultural runoff.

Ellison's interest in plant biotechnology began when he read an article on Bt corn, an engineered plant that makes its own pesticide. "I started having all these questions, and once I answered those, I had more questions, and one thing led to another," he said. Biotechnology intrigues him because it has so many potential benefits. Meeting other undergraduates who share his interests has been a bonus, he added. "We always end up getting in these hard-core science conversations over dinner, which are really fun," Ellison said.

Such conversations are no accident, according to BTI outreach coordinator Nicole Markelz: The interns live together at the Alpha Zeta fraternity house so that they can build a community. "It can be really daunting coming here from another part of the country, but I think it makes it easier for them to have each other," she said.

The program gives students who are considering a career in science a taste of full-time research. When publicizing the program, Markelz pays special attention to liberal arts colleges where, like Ellison, most students have had little exposure to research labs. She also targets historically black and Hispanic-serving institutions, since members of those groups are underrepresented in science.

Markelz works with research mentors to ensure that interns have independent research projects they can complete reasonably over the summer. She also arranges seminars by campus scientists so that students can learn about different aspects of plant science, such as evolution and pathology. In two special seminars, the interns discussed scientific ethics and genetically modified organisms.

For now, intern ChauSa Nguyen is busy making connections between what she's learning in the greenhouse and the lab, and the goals that brought her here. "I grew up in Vietnam, in the countryside, and I liked hanging out on the farms," she said. "Plants are really important -- we can't live without them -- but not many young people
are interested in plant biology. I want to contribute what I can to the field."

Nguyen, who will transfer to the University of California-Davis this fall from DeAnza College in San Jose, hopes the PGRP internship will help her decide which area of plant science she's most interested in (she's leaning toward plant pathology or molecular biology). Her focus this summer is on identifying genes that determine how efficiently crops use water. To do so, she measures photosynthesis rates in a BTI greenhouse and does molecular biology experiments in plant breeding and genetics professor Susan McCouch's lab.

Eligible students must be college sophomores or juniors with a background in biology and U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The PGRP undergraduate internships are funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and by individual labs.

Related World Wide Web sites:
Plant Genome Research Program Web site: <http://outreach-pgrp.cornell.edu/>