This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Funds are provided for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) to renovate and upgrade existing plant growth facilities at our Uplands Farm Research Field Station. CSHL has an extensive greenhouse complex offsite where seminal work in Arabidopsis and crop plants has been conducted. The research focus on crop yield and adaptation of crops to substandard conditions has global impact and this will increase with these improved facilities. The greenhouses and growth rooms are used to support the research programs and also support the plant genetics teaching programs of the CSHL Dolan DNA Learning Center. These aging and outdated facilities are inadequate to meet the demands of current genome driven plant biology research. The infrastructural improvements will provide appropriate growing conditions for a greater diversity of plant species and will increase the energy efficiency of the facilities. In the proposed renovations, CSHL intends to: 1 Replace boilers in two smaller greenhouses, and two boiler burner units in the largest of the three greenhouses. 2 Install updated evaporative cooling units in each of the three greenhouses. 3 Install automated ventilation, sunshade, and irrigation systems in all three greenhouses. 4 Replace the aging, hazed acrylic sheathing on the largest greenhouse. 5 Renovate and improve the head house of the largest greenhouse. 6 Replace the cooling unit in the Field Station Laboratory with a modern and more efficient unit with an economizer ventilation unit. 7 Replace outdated lighting fixtures in the Arabidopsis growth facilities with improved, high-efficiency units and install a dedicated heating loop.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) operates a 10.3 acre plant research facility comprised of three greenhouses, a series of growth rooms, and field space located one half mile from the main research campus on Long Island, New York. Presently, five laboratories use this facility for research on the plant model system, Arabidopsis, as well as on crop plants – principally corn (maize), tomato, sorghum and rice. Due to aging, the current space and growth conditions at Uplands Farm were severely hindering research progress. In particular, demand for controlled growth conditions to achieve reliable quantitative phenotyping and precision tissue sampling has greatly increased. Furthermore, the development of advanced forward and reverse genetic tools is being limited by seasonal restrictions on use. The Uplands Farm growth facilities were in need of a complete upgrade and renovation to enable the continued success of the Plant Research Group at CSHL. After 25 years of use, virtually all mechanical and electrical systems were nearing the end of their service lives. These include four boilers, the research laboratory HVAC system, greenhouse ventilation and irrigation systems, and growth chamber lighting and heating. Furthermore, the head house of the most widely used greenhouse (Greenhouse A) lacks space conditioning for summertime use and has endured substantial insect damage. Additionally, the acrylic panes of Greenhouse A, used predominantly for crop research, undergo UV-induced hazing and severe cracking over time, and no longer fully transmit available sunlight during winter months. With thanks to the National Science Foundation-American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-Stimulus (NSF ARRA) Program for providing us the support for the following renovations to the plant growth facilities: • Replaced outdated, inefficient boilers and swamp coolers in all three greenhouses •Installed automated ventilation, sunshade, and irrigation systems in all three greenhouses, •Renovated the damaged Greenhouse A head house, installing air conditioning and enabling flexibility for installation of environmentally controlled growth facilities in the renovated space, • Replaced the outdated HVAC unit in the Field Station laboratory with a modern, high-efficiency unit, and •Replaced the outdated, energy inefficient, lighting fixtures in the Arabidopsis facilities The renovated plant growth facilities have had immediate positive impacts on both basic and applied plant biology research at CSHL. The five CSHL plant research groups study diverse plants ranging from the weedy broccoli relative Arabidopsis to major crops such as tomato, rice, sorghum, and corn. Ongoing efforts are focused on understanding basic aspects of plant growth, for example, how roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds are produced from plant "stem cells", and on identifying new genes that control plant growth, vigor and yield, particularly under variable environmental conditions such as drought. In this regard, the major immediate benefit of the plant growth facility renovation has been an increase in the number of plants that can be grown and evaluated year-round, and the ability to compare these plants in both optimal and stress growth conditions that mimic a typical agricultural field. Already in the first year, two related projects on fruit yield in tomato and grain production in corn have benefited from an improved ability to reliably measure various flower, fruit, and seed traits from 30% more plants than was previously possible. Similarly, a project studying leaf shape and size has benefited from more rapid and reliable trait evaluations, thereby facilitating identification of key genes that are turned on and off when a stem cell changes to a leaf cell. A final example involves projects on how pollen forms, grows, and transmits both genetic and "epigenetic" growth and stress response information to seeds that will become the next generation of plants. Pollen is notoriously difficult to work with due to environmental sensitivity, but in the last year as a result of the renovation project there has been a dramatic improvement in the ability to collect and study pollen production and growth on a scale not possible before the ARRA supported renovation project was complete. Altogether, the improved greenhouse and growth chamber space at CSHL has resulted in new discoveries that have already contributed to at least five publications in major research journals. In the longer term, the updated growth facilities will permit at least a 25% time reduction in identifying new genes and studying their roles in plant growth and yield. This will provide more efficient training for the more than 40 students and post-doctoral plant researchers at CSHL striving to advance their careers in academics or industry. Finally, the revitalized growth facilities are facilitating the growing of plant crops and teaching tools for educational outreach programs with local elementary and high schools that CSHL researchers have developed through NSF research grants.
