The 6th
Annual
NC
Undergraduate
Summer Research Symposium
NSF Fungal Genomics
REU
Abstracts are listed in
alphabetical order by the last name of the corresponding author.
|
Birdsall, Paige M. |
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Home Institution: |
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Program: |
NSF Fungal Genomics REU |
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College: |
CALS |
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Department(s): |
Center for Integrated
Fungal Research |
|
Research |
Ralph Dean/Center for
Integrated Fungal Research Abdelaty Saleh/Center for
Integrated Fungal Research |
|
Title of Presentation: |
Plant-Pathogen Warfare:
Protein-Protein Interactions Between Rice and the Rice Blast Fungus |
Rice blast is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea which is
a major limiting factor in rice production throughout the world. M. grisea is a
leading model for the study of fungus-plant interactions. The goal of this
project was to determine protein-protein interactions that control disease
between the rice plant and the rice blast pathogen. The resistance gene from
the rice plant, PITA and the corresponding avirulence
gene, AVR-PITA from the rice blast were amplified using Polymerase Chain
Reaction and placed in Gateway Cloning Vectors. They were then tested to see
the interaction through Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation when
transformed into rice protoplasts.
|
Johnson,
April T. |
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Home Institution: |
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Program: |
NSF Fungal Genomics REU |
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College: |
CALS |
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Department(s): |
Center for Integrated
Fungal Research |
|
Research |
Ralph Dean/Center for
Integrated Fungal Research Doug Brown/Bioinformatics |
|
Title of Presentation: |
A Computational Analysis
of microRNAs from the Genome Sequence of the Rice
Blast Fungus Magnaporthe grisea |
The rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea is a destructive pathogen that
kills a vast amount of rice crops each year. M. grisea is the limiting factor to rice production
in many regions and is very difficult to control. MiRNAs
are 17-21 nucleotide sequences that negatively regulate gene expression.
Consequently, identifying and analyzing the M.
grisea genome for miRNAs
will provide greater insight into why the fungus is so damaging and what can be
done to control this organism. From the Bioinformatics approach, a
computational analysis of the miRNAs of M. grisea was
performed. A computer program using PERL© and UNIX© was created to extract the
predicted target sites from thirty-three miRNAs. In
addition, these miRNAs were blasted against the NCBI
database to identify possible matches in other fungi. The data extraction
program read each file of miRNA data matches of M. grisea and
displayed an output of the gene name, miRNA name,
folding energy, and genome location. The extracted information was compiled
into a database in order to provide researchers the opportunity to compare data
collected from wet lab experiments. In conclusion, these comparisons and
analyses will help to gain a better understanding of miRNAs
and the role they play in fungal pathogenesis.
[ 2007 Undergraduate Summer
Research Symposium Main Page ]
Last modified
June 2007 by Sharon E. Hunt