9314225 Franceschi This award will provide travel support over the next three years to enable Dr. Vincent Franceschi of Washington State University to make yearly visits to conduct cooperative research with Dr. John W. Patrick at the University of Newcastle in Australia. The research will focus on the mechanism of sucrose unloading in developing seeds. To understand how unloading is regulated, it is necessary to analyze each step at the cellular and subcellular level, and is best accomplished through a histochemical approach. Specialized cells called transfer cells appear to contain the biochemical mechanisms necessary for controlling sucrose unloading. Antibody and cDNA probes will be used to further characterize the transfer cells. This project will bring together the physiological expertise of Dr. Patrick with the molecular probes and techniques which have been developed by Dr. Franceschi. Since crop yield is strongly affected by the rate and pattern of import into storage regions of a plant, and unloading is central to import, this research could have significant practical importance in agriculture.
