This award supports Professor Steven Pueppke and a graduate student of the University of Missouri to collaborate in botanical research with Professor Dietrich Werner of the Biology Department of the Phillips University of Marburg, Germany. They are studying biochemical signaling in the symbiotic association between soybean, a leguminous plant, and the soil dwelling bacteria, Rhizobium. This association provides a model system in which to study the chemical signals from the plant root that selectively attract certain bacterial species, as well as the return cues from the bacteria which prepare the plant for friendly invasion. Complementary expertise in this particular symbiotic pair (US side) and in various plant signals that promote or block symbiosis (German side) make this an ideal partnership to pursue improved understanding of the chemical signaling in this system.
