This award provides funds to support the visit by Dr. Ronald D. Hatfield of the U.S.D.A. Dairy Forage Research Center at the University of Wisconsin to La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, where he will conduct cooperative research with Professor Bruce A. Stone, Chair of the Department of Biochemistry. The research will focus on the chemical composition of plant cell walls at various stages of development. Lignin-carbohydrate complexes from alfalfa stems will be isolated and their fine structure, in terms of cross-linking mechanisms, identified. In addition, proteins from the walls of young seedlings and cell cultures of alfalfa will be isolated and characterized in order to identify classes of various structural proteins. Mature stems and lignin-carbohydrate complexes will be assayed for the presence of these classes of structural proteins. This information is critical to elucidating cell wall organization necessary in determining digestibility by rumen microbes in forage crops such as alfalfa. This research is of economic importance to the dairy, beef cattle, and sheep industries.
