Aug 29, 2007 - Claremont, Calif. - Associate Professor of Biology Mary Williams has been awarded two grants totaling more than $300,000 for research in plant cellular structure and response, and for the development of tools for K-12 biology education and outreach.

The first grant, funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research for Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) program is a three-year $313,209 award for her project, “Collaborative Research: SAC9, a Novel, Plant-Specific Phosphoinositide Phosphatase Essential for Membrane/Cytoskelton Dynamics in Arabidopsis.” It was funded by the NSF’s division of molecular and cellular biology. Williams will collaborate with long-time research associate Daryll DeWald of Utah State University, who is an expert of phosphoinositide chemistry and cell biology; Williams’ expertise is in molecular biology and genetics.

The second grant was awarded to Williams and a team of researchers by the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) 2007 Grant Awards Program. Williams will collaborate with Jeffrey Coker, assistant professor of biology at Elon University, and Jane Ellis, associate professor of biology at Presbyterian College, to identify, trouble-shoot, assess and disseminate a hands-on, inquiry-based learning program via their project, “Twelve Activities to Accompany the Twelve Principles of Plant Biology.”

The NSF grant funds an investigation into a type of cell signal (phosphoinositide) that is activated in plants when they are stressed (e.g., by drought). Cells respond by making proteins that protect the plant from drought stress. Williams and her team of investigators will study the gene that encodes an enzyme called a phosphoinositide phosphatase (a.k.a. PI phosphatase), which controls the signal. Most organisms (animals, fungi, plants) make PI phosphatases. In their research, Williams’ team previously found that in addition to the “normal” PI phosphatases, plants make an extra one, called SAC9. The research, which will be conducted using Arabidopsis, will address how the unique aspects of SAC9 contribute to signaling function. Arabidopsis is widely used as a model organism for plants. It was the first plant whose genome was sequenced and is used in hundreds of labs and companies around the world as a tool for discovering gene functions.

“Just as a raisin shrivels as it loses water, cells also shrivel, and, unfortunately, they often break open during this process as the plasma membrane can lose integrity and the cellular contents can leak out, killing the cell,” Williams explains. “Normally, as the plant experiences drought stress, it reinforces its membrane to help it resist breaking. The cytoskeleton is the structure within a cell that regulates membrane integrity and structure. Our research shows that the SAC9 enzyme has an important role in controlling the membrane/cytoskeleton dynamics. Experiments also suggest that one effect of the phosphoinositide signaling pathway is to activate the reinforcement of the membrane.”

The goal of the research is to use the information about plant stress signaling for crop improvement. Plants use the same pathway to signal too little water and too much salt. A deleterious consequence of agricultural irrigation is that it leads to increasingly salty soils – water with some dissolved salts is pumped onto the fields, but pure water evaporates and is taken up by the plants. Over time (even as little as 20 years), this can make the soil too salty for the same crops that used to grow in them. This is already a major problem for agriculture in California as well as other regions that require intensive irrigation. The research is designed to contribute to the development of plants that are more salt and drought tolerant.

The grant also provides summer research stipends for HMC undergraduates and funds the biochemical supplies needed to carry out the research. One important tool being used in this project is the confocal microscope HMC purchased through a previous NSF grant, and some of the funds will be used to offset the costs associated with using and maintaining this microscope.

During the 2008-09 academic year, Williams will travel to a lab at Glasgow University in Scotland that specializes in studying membrane dynamics to learn some of their methods that she will adopt to accelerate her research.

Williams’ ASPB grant will further develop The 12 Principles of Plant Biology, an ASPB plant science education program for K-12 schools. These principles serve as guidelines for curriculum developers and teachers to ensure that students gain a thorough understanding of plant biology. The newly-funded Twelve Activities project is the fruit of the research team’s considerable combined experience in plant science education as well as their response to numerous requests from teachers and organizations for well-constructed (“foolproof”) hands-on, active-learning opportunities with plants.

According to Williams, “As members of the ASPB’s Education Committee, Jeffrey Coker, Jane Ellis and I have traveled extensively to teacher conferences and public science events disseminating information about plant biology and the Twelve Principles. We have been continually asked by teachers if we have any hands-on activities that they can use with their students. In response to these teachers, we are developing a set of 12 hands-on, inquiry based activities that illustrate the 12 principles.

“As teachers at undergraduate colleges, we have seen first-hand how effectively students learn by doing. We regularly provide our students with opportunities to learn about plants by growing them, analyzing them and experimenting with them. Many K-12 teachers don’t have the knowledge or background to provide these sorts of opportunities for their students. Our project will provide the teachers with the tools and information they need to get their students actively engaged in studying plants.”

ASPB, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, was founded in 1924 as the American Society of Plant Physiologists. This professional society has a membership of 5,000 plant scientists from the United States and more than 50 other nations. ASPB publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals in the world: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. The ASPB Education Foundation awards up to $30,000 to ASPB members conducting research projects that will advance plant biology through K-16 education and public outreach activities.