Ames, Iowa
January 23, 2009
Iowa State University researchers are leading two studies
investigating how potato plants respond to their environment
with the potential of increasing yields of the world’s fourth
most important food crop.
Grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture worth $3.15 million are funding the
studies of how the potato plant sends signals within the plant.
David Hannapel, professor of horticulture, leads the NSF project
and is co-leader on the USDA project with Aragula Rao, professor
and chair of the biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology
department.
Plants receive environmental signals that activate molecular
pathways to control defense, development and metabolism,
Hannapel said. The length of daylight is a key environmental
signal that regulates flowering, dormancy and tuberization of
the potato.
“Tuberization in potatoes is particularly intriguing as it
involves the delivery of a light signal from the light-receiving
organ, the leaf, to an underground organ, the stolon,” he said.
“The overall scientific objective of these projects is to
uncover the network of signals that are responsible for the
light-activated process of tuber formation.”
Hannapel said recent discoveries have demonstrated the role of a
mobile RNA in a signaling system that activates tuber formation.
RNA, ribonucleic acid, is a molecule present in all living
things that plays a part in protein production and transmitting
genetic information.
“Full-length mobile RNAs that move long distances in plants and
act as signals for development and defense are a novel idea in
plant biology. The value of our work is that it provides a model
for understanding how such signal RNAs are moving and what
determines their final destination,” Hannapel said.
Rao will work to identify and characterize the proteins that
recognize mobile RNAs. “We will use both targeted and random
approaches to do this,” he said.
The work also has the possibility of boosting potato production.
“We are fortunate that the RNAs we study in potato activate
tuber formation and in this way, regulate tuber yields,” he
said. “So this system can potentially be used to enhance crop
productivity. When considering calories generated for human
consumption per acre, potato is the most productive food crop on
the planet and is a critical staple in many developing
countries.”
Working with Hannapel and Rao on the NSF-funded project are Jeff
Coller of Case Western Reserve University and William Lucas of
the University of California-Davis. |
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