9214986 Carpita This award supports Professors Nicholas Carpita and Robert Dunkle of Purdue University, and students in their research groups, to collaborate in cellular biology research with Professor Hans Hohl and Dr. Robert Dudler of the Institute of Plant Biology of the University of Zurich, Switzerland. They are studying some fundamental microscopic aspects of plant cell structure that change as the cells respond to unfavorable environmental stress. The combined talents of the U.S. participants in protein biochemistry and plant pathology and the German scientists' expertise in cytology and genetics create an unusually strong team to work on understanding the intracellular processes in stressed plants. Plant cells have membranes inside them adjacent but not connected to the cell walls that react to some types of stress by adhering to the cell walls. These investigators are attempting to understand the mechanisms for that adhesion by examining the individual protein constituents of the membrane-wall adhesion complex. By characterizing the components, they will obtain information necessary for understanding the adhesion process, and perhaps controlling it in useful ways to improve plants' reaction to saline stress and pathogen attack. ***
