This proposal requests support from the National Science Foundation Biological Instrumentation Program to purchase a liquid scintillation spectrometer. Seven faculty and their research groups are designated in this proposal as major users. The research projects of the major users include: investigation of (a) the mechanism of visual transduction and adaptation, (b) the role of highly unsaturated fatty acids in biological membrane structure and function; (c) molecular basis of algal/bacterial interactions in biofilms, (d) the structure of insect agglutinin and its role in immune-defense mechanisms, (e) the characterization and biosynthesis of aggregation pheromones in Drosophila; (f) construction and utilization of a restriction fragment length polymorphism based linkage map of three barley genes, (g) development and evaluation of molecular methods for the evaluation of genetic diversity in alfalfa and lentils; (h) phytic acid pathways in plants and suppressor-mutator transposable elements in maize; and (i) the metabolism of phytotoxins by plants pathogens of weedy plants.
