Wenck 9413194 This award supports Allen R. Wenck, a doctoral student of Professor Laszlo Marton at the University of South Carolina (USC), for a three-month visit to the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Cologne, Germany. There he will carry out research on gene transfer in Arabidopsis thaliana with Dr. Csaba Koncz in the Laboratory for the Genetic Basis of Plant Development. The objective of his dissertation-related research is to examine the influence of homologous gene sequences on gene transfer mediated by Agrobacterium. He will experiment with various lengths of homology bounded by specific types of internal genetic markers referred to as an "in-frame reporter system", which will enable him to monitor the site of the gene transfer. After constructing plasmid vectors and transgenic plants in South Carolina, he will spend several months working with Dr. Koncz on the analysis of the genetic integration process. Professor Marton and his research group at USC has been working on homologous recombinantion for several years using Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer. They pioneered the transformation of Arabidopsis root cultures and the maintenance of transgenic plants in permanent root culture. The group at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne offers unusual expertise in the analysis of integration events during Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer. The Institute in general is one of the best plant molecular biology Laboratories in the world. Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer has been used extensively to create transgenic plants. It offers a number of advantages over direct methods, but the detailed sequence of integration events is not well understood. In particular, the influence of the left end sequence homology has not been examined until now. Mr. Wenck's proposed research will clarify site selection of transfer DNA integration. This will be important in the design of plasmids for Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer. In addition, this research will contribute to the development of "in-frame reporter systems" for plants, which is a long term goal of many plant genetics laboratories around the world. ***
