Researcher ponders plant recycling process
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Learning how and why plants recycle cell structures and nutrients could give clues to making them produce more and better food, Diane Bassham says.
Bassham, an assistant professor of genetics, development and cell biology, studies autophagy – literally, "self-eating." Plants induce this process in senescence – cell aging – and to survive when stressed or starving.
Bassham, an affiliate of the Center for Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses, focuses on the vacuole's role in autophagy. Under normal conditions, the vacuole breaks down and stores cell materials. But during autophagy, "It's breaking down perfectly good parts of the cell... just so the cell can stay alive," she said.
With a $375,000 National Science Foundation grant, Bassham will study the cytoskeleton's role in autophagy. The cytoskeleton is a series of protein fibers that give the cell structure and transport things through it.
"Our hypothesis is that the cytoskeleton is transporting materials to the vacuole," Bassham said. She and her team will look at what happens if parts of the cytoskeleton are prevented from recycling. The goal is to make plants more resistant to stress and to delay senescence, thereby increasing yield.
Bassham also recently received a Plant Sciences Institute Grant of $30,000 per year for two years to focus on soybean proteins. "There, we're trying to do the opposite," she said, "package proteins so they won't be broken down in the vacuole." That's important if soybeans are genetically engineered to produce useful proteins, like drugs. The plant cell might attempt to recycle the proteins because they're foreign, Bassham said.
