This award provides support for the travel of Dr. William Randle of the University of Georgia to conduct cooperative research with Dr. Jane Elizabeth Lancaster of the newly instituted New Zealand Crown Research Institute for Crop and Food Research. The research will investigate biochemical aspects of sulfur partitioning in the onion (Allium cepa). The presence of sulfur compounds in onions is of importance in determining flavor intensity. The research will describe how sulfur is differentially mobilized and partitioned among cultivars in a plant expending considerable energy in sulfur metabolism, will determine sulfur-compound accumulation in the flavor biosynthetic pathway, and will describe the role of flavor enzymes in differential flavor intensity. The project joins the complementary skills of Dr. Randle as a geneticist and plant breeder and those of Dr. Lancaster in the biochemistry and physiology of sulfur compounds. Since the principal investigators work in different hemispheres, two crops of onions can be produced under natural photoperiods in a single year. Travel by Dr. Lancaster to the University of Georgia will be funded through the New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MORST).
