A grant has been awarded to Baruch College under the direction of Dr. Edward Tucker for the acquisition of an inverted microscope and ancillary digital imaging equipment, a micropipette puller, and a micromanipulator for a plant microinjection/calcium imaging facility. Projects will include investigation of the role of calcium in mitosis and as a second messenger in light and hormone signaling. While microinjection and calcium imaging in animals is a routine procedure, in plants these techniques require special technical skills. This facility supported by this grant will be one of a few worldwide where moss cells are microinjected. It will fulfill a demand for a facility where Baruch College moss microinjection experiments can be carried out, and where collaborators from around the world can be trained in moss transformation and microinjection.
