Plants grown in soil are often faced with surviving under conditions of flooding or water logged soil. Oxygen becomes limiting and oxidative metabolism is inhibited. Some plants respond to this condition by initiating changes in protein synthesis as well as carbon metabolism. This stress response has been particularly well studied in corn. Dr. M. Freeling of the University of California, Berkeley has found and characterized over twenty corn mutants that show varying degrees of survival under anerobic conditions. Dr. Winkler will study the various biochemical alterations demonstrated by the various classes of mutants and relate them to the level of survival of that particular mutant under conditions of water stress. Other mutants will be isolated. An understanding of how plants respond to environmental stress at a biochemical level is fundamentally important but will also have significant economic ramifications since the flooding of crop fields or the use of waterlogged soil as a field are important commercial problems.
