Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Extensive access to a high quality light microscope is essential for research in cell, developmental, and molecular biology.  The equipment required is a high resolution light microscope equipped with a range of optics and with strong documentation capability. The four labs requesting this microscope (Sack, Haughn, Kunst, Douglas) all use molecular genetics to determine how cell types and tissues develop.  We study structures central to plant life and to humans such as fibers, wood, stomata, seed coats, and pollen. Defining gene function and expression requires considerable time at the microscope, as well as optics like fluorescence, bright-field, and differential interference contrast.  Data collection and publication require two types of cameras, one with high sensitivity for fluorescence, such as for green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the other with high resolution color imaging for visualizing e.g. promoter-glucuronidase (GUS) staining or chloroplast morphology.  This integrated microscope system will be housed in and maintained by the Sack lab which has extensive experience in using all types of microscopy to study plant structure and function. Collectively, our four labs are doing cutting edge research in studying how plant cell fate is determined, how the cell wall is synthesized, how cells are shaped, and how cell divisions are regulated.  Our labs are close in location, in scientific and intellectual exchange, and in jointly training over 25 Highly Qualified Personnel.  This microscope will make it possible for us to train students and postdoctoral fellows in a technique and a scientific approach that is central to current biology. It will also greatly enhance our already strong research programs and should reveal mechanisms central to the production of cell walls, wood and biomass, to gas exchange and transpiration, and to plant reproduction.