This project is providing modern laboratory equipment to establish a contemporary cell and molecular plant science teaching program. Two upper-level laboratory courses are affected: Plant Physiology, and Plant Growth and Development. Plant Physiology currently is undergoing complete renovation at the hands of the principal investigator (who was hired a year ago to fill the department's void in modern plant laboratory sciences). Plant Growth and Development is a new course, offered for the first time in 1987- 1988. The equipment is fitting out two entire laboratory courses in a manner that allows students to observe fundamental principles in plant biology and to gain experience in methodologies currently employed in plant science laboratory research. As direct result of this grant, students are having an opportunity to utilize the following techniques in their study of plant processes: fluorescence and gas exchange at the whole leaf/whole plant level, organella isolation and characterization, suborganella fractionation, polarographic gas assay in solution, electrophoretic separation of proteins and quantification by scanning densitometry, immunochemical assays including Western blots and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays, and in vitro translations. Plant molecular and cell biology currently are areas of intense research efforts which are generating a great deal of excitement. An objective of this project is to transmit some of that stimulation to the local level. Some of the equipment also is being used in other upper-level laboratory courses by biology majors, a majority of whom continue their formal education in either graduate or professional schools. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.
