The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Stephen E. Schauer to work with Dr. Ueli Grossniklaus at the University of Zurich in Switzerland on a study of the "Oedipus Screen": the identification of novel sporophytic maternal effect mutations in Arabidopsis.
Isolation of maternal specific mutants is an important goal towards complete understanding of seed development. This project will isolate mutants that have a maternal specific phenotype. This will likely isolate mutants that are involved in maternal functions such as nourishment and other as yet unidentified functions. Understanding how the mother plant can send development signals and transports nutrients to the developing embryo is critical for improving agricultural production in order to feed the growing population.
