“Developing a Data Comparison Tool for Musabase and MGIS Using the BrAPI Interface” Project Summary: The Mueller Lab has developed a breeding database for bananas, known as Musabase for the purpose of helping breeders to create new varieties of crops for...
“Analysis of Iochroma cyaneum Gene Families” Project Summary: Gene duplication and loss is an important force driving the evolution of species. The resulting gene families are an essential aspect to understanding functional differences between species. We...
“Assessment of the Role of the NOR and NOR-LIKE 1 Genes in Tomato Ripening” Project Summary: During the internship, we studied the function of NOR (NON-RIPENING) and NOR-LIKE 1 genes and their effect on tomato ripening. Tomatoes are a crucial cash crop to...
“A QTL Containing Maize ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 2 Regulates Two Antifungal Metabolites and Resistance Against a Common Fungal Pathogen, Fusarium Graminearum” Project Summary Resistance to fungal pathogens is an important plant defensive and crucial for their...
“Do hawkmoths dream of flower shapes? Exploring innate preference by flower-naive Manduca sexta.” Project Summary: How does floral dimensions, size, and shape affect flower choice and handling in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta Gaining the fundamental...
“Functional Characterization of the Tomato Sugar Transporter SWEET10” Project Summary: Carbohydrates produced from photosynthesis are crucial to development, growth, and signaling in plants. To maintain optimal plant function, sugars must be moved from the...
“Examining characteristics of artichoke mutant phenotype in Physcomitrella patens” Project Summary: In the flowering plant Arabidopsis, mutations in members of the ERECTA gene family confer a smaller size and straighter stature in comparison to the...
“Plastoglobular Atypical ABC1 Kinase Function” Project Summary: Plastoglobules are lipoprotein particles that are present in all plastid types. They contain specialized proteomes and metabolomes, and play a variety of important roles in plastid...
“Understanding DSB repair in the context of the synaptonemal complex” Project Summary: Meiotic recombination is initiated by the formation of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in chromosomal DNA, whose repair results in crossovers (COs) and non-crossovers...
“Development of tools for structural analysis of plant membrane proteins” Project Summary: All cells and organelles are surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane, which are impermeable to hydrophilic molecules such as sugars and small ions. Membrane...
“Transcriptome-Wide Association Study of Maize Leaf Cuticular Evaporation Rate” Project Summary: Maize yields have increased greatly, but a limiting factor is drought sensitivity. The plant cuticle is a hydrophobic layer that plays a major role in...
“Determining the threat that florally transmitted parasites pose to wild bees” Project Summary: Insect populations, including many wild bee species are in decline which is threatening the valuable pollination services they provide. Pollinators are...
“Using Natural Variation in Tomato to Identify Novel Immune Responses to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato” Project Summary: Bacterial speck is a disease caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato that causes necrotic specks on tomato leaves, stems, flowers,...
“Marker & Pedigree Hybrid Visualization Tool” Project Summary: Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a staple crop and key source of carbohydrates in many tropical regions of the world. Inbreeding depression has occurred in most cassava populations, resulting...
“Bacterial Communities in the Hyphosphere of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi” Project Summary: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form a symbiotic relationship with plants, providing nutrients from soil, such as phosphorus, while receiving carbon in return....
“SpinachBase: A new database for spinach research and development” Project Summary: SpinachBase (www.spinachbasez.feilab.net) is a new web-based database for the Spinacia oleracea genome providing centralized public access to genomic and...
“Nitrogen fixing symbioses in bryophytes show host preferences between cyanobionts” Project Summary: Nitrogen is important for all plants but it is often a limiting nutrient because plants cannot directly metabolize the nitrogen gas that composes...
“Understanding the role of SlDML2 expression on ripening initiation in tomato fruit” Project Summary: More than one third of fresh fruit produced in the US each year is lost due to spoilage. As the ripening process predisposes fruit to spoilage, the...
“Developing Methods for Manipulating Meiotic Recombination in Zea mays” Project Summary: Meiosis is a cell division process in which cells reduce their chromosome number by ½ (2n->n). During this process, double stranded breaks (DSB) in chromosomal DNA...
“The Initiation and Development of Trichomes on Developing Tomato Fruits” Project Summary: Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a major food crop and each plant has tiny hairs called trichomes present on the stem, leaves, flower bud, and fruit. Not much is...
“Analysis of Cold Stress Responses in Solanum lycopersicoides Introgression Lines” Project Summary: While the world population is rapidly growing, arable acreage is shrinking causing strain on agriculture. Severe shifts in weather patterns associated with...
“Determining the cause of host specificity of Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum and Xanthamonas vasicola pv. vasculorum” Project Summary: Bananas are a staple food important for subsistence and financial security in the East African Great Lakes...
“Approaches for the genetic improvement of Physalis” About me: My name is Kyle Keating and I come from a town called Centereach in the middle of Long Island, New York. Earlier in life I always knew I wanted to work with plants. I started my botanical...
“Determining the Localization of the OZ Protein Family” Project Summary: The goal of the experiment is to determine the subcellular localization of the proteins encoded by the genes OZ2, OZ3 and OZ4. RNA editing in vascular plants converts cytidine...
“Studying the Diversity and Biosynthesis of Resin Glycosides in Morning Glories” Project Summary It is estimated that over a million different metabolites exist across the plant kingdom. Members of the Convolvulaceae (morning glory) family produce...
“Analysis of the Asclepias syriaca Genome and Gene Families” Project Summary: Asclepias syriaca, known as the common milkweed, is found throughout northeastern and southeastern parts of the United States. Cardenolides are a subclass of cardiac...
“Pan-genomic analysis of Solanum habrochaites, a wild tomato plant” Project Summary: Solanum habrochaites is a diploid, wild tomato species that grows on the slopes of the Andes Mountains. Its unique phenotype includes glandular trichomes on the...
“A strategic analysis of the institutional public outreach event Art@BTI” Project Summary: The Boyce Thompson Institute is a leader in the field of basic science research of plants and other organisms. The Institute’s drafted Strategic Plan for...
Project Summary Plants are constantly exposed to pathogen attack, yet they manage to thrive and fight off these threats. Our food supply is dependent on crops’ ability to fend off these pathogens, making their biochemical defense systems a point of research...
“Functional Domain Analysis of the PSRP7 PETs Protein in Arabidopsis thaliana” Project Summary Plastid-Specific Ribosomal Proteins (PSRP) are nucleus-encoded proteins which play a role in chloroplast translation, so named because the genes exist only in...
Nicole is a student at the Loyola Marymount University. She worked in the Jander lab under the guidance of post-doc John Ramsey. For this project, Nicole look at identification of aphid defense genes by VIGS (virus induced gene silencing) in tobacco.
Carolina is currently a sophomore at Cornell University. While in the Giovannoni lab, Carolina worked with her mentor, post-doctoral associate, Nigel Gapper on development of a high-throughput assay for folic acid (B vitamin) concentrations in fruit tissues. As part...
Analysis of a SANT-domain protein controlling organ size uniformity in Arabidopsis sepal development Project Summary One of the major questions of developmental biology is how the plant cells decide when to stop growing and dividing to ensure a correctly sized organ....
Exploring Tomato Virus Diversity in China using Deep Small RNA Sequencing Project Summary Tomatoes are one of the most important vegetable crops in the world for their nutrients and their prominence in the global vegetable economy. Viruses, however, threaten the...
Johanna is from here in Ithaca, NY and is a student at Ithaca High School. In the Brutnell lab, Johanna is working with a postdoc, Judy Kolkman. Johanna is working on a new Ac-induced mutation, which displays a wilted phenotype even in the presence of adequate water....
Natural variation in arbuscule development and lifespan in selected ecotypes of Medicago truncatulaarbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiosis with Gigaspora gigantea My experiments were a part of the larger Medicago HapMap project, an international research consortium that...
Plant polyamine alternative pathways Project Summary Polyamines are multifunctional biological molecules found in all living organisms. In plants, polyamines respond to biotic and abiotic stressors, so understanding their regulatory and biosynthetic pathways provide...
Characterization of ABC1K Proteins as an Integral Part of Plant Light-Stress Response This summer exposed me to tier-one university research and the rigors associated with it. I am grateful for having this wonderful opportunity, making the connections I did, and...
Lillian is a student at Penn State University. During her internship Martin lab, Lillian and her mentor post-doc Fangming Xiao worked on characterization of phosphorylation of the Psedumonas Type III effector; AvrPtoB. For this project, she learned DNA sequencing,...
Lydia is currently a senior at Ithaca High School. She worked in the Jander lab with Post-doctoral associate Tengfang Huang on a project working to Isolate the gene causing m-tyrosine resistance in Arabidopsis mutant. During her internship, Lydia used techniques such...
Originally from nearby Homer, NY, Colin is currently a student at Bucknell University. This summer, Colin worked with mentor Liza Conrad on the Ac project. Besides using inverse PCR to amplify genes tagged by the Ac transposon, Colin also did a lot of Southern blots,...
Development of Reporter Genes for Monitoring Pattern-Triggered Immunity Project Summary Environments rich in pathogens challenge plant growth. They reduce crop yields worldwide by 10-16%, costing $220 billion annually. Pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) is the first...
Plant-Pathogen Relationship Database The goal of creating a plant-pathogen relationship database is to understand plant pathogens and the way they affect plants. Identifying organism-organism interactions and how they work can be of great practical use to scientists...
Potato overcompensation growth response to Guatemalan tuber moth infection Project Summary Insect herbivory often reduces the overall plant productivity and it has been estimated that herbivory alone affects the agriculture output by 20%. However, in rare cases...
“Indole-3-Glycerol Phosphate Synthase Characterization in Maize Plants” Project Summary In plants, indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase (IGPS) proteins control the biosynthesis of precursors for the production of important metabolites, including...
“BrAPI connecting the world’s plant breeding data through a mobile application” Project Summary: Breeding technology is advancing very rapidly, and it is important to stay connected between databases to share information faster. It is also important...
“Physiological Mechanism of Fusarium graminearum-induced Aphid Vulnerability on Maize Seedlings” Project Summary Plants are subject to attack by many types of pests. While there has been significant research on plant interactions with these pests...
