Wild relatives of many of our ecomically-valuable plants possess many useful traits, but introduction of these traitsinto our modern cultivars is currently hampered by the fact that many of these traits are both quantative and multigenic. our proposal will examince the feasibility of utilizing dna… More

A fungus endophyte acremonium coenophialum, colonizing perennial ryegrass species in nature, confers insect resistance upon the host plant against several insect predators. the fungus propagates itself by colonizing the seed, without having any adverse effects on the plant. the objectives of this… More

Vast areas of the western and southwestern u.s. consist of arid and semi-arid lands that are currently underutilized. a phytochemical survey of over 800 plant species native to these regions indicates that atriplex canescens, a successful rangeland shrub, is a potentially useful source of… More

The harmful effects on the economy of forestry and agriculture, as well as the deterioration of the recreational environment, which are caused by gaseous air pollutants, are well recognized. one serious problem afflicting the study of pollutant induced injury to plants is the great difficulty of… More

Preliminary laboratory work has identified two factors which effect the ease of initiation of embryogenic cultures of maize and the ease of maintenance of such cultures. these two factors are described in the proposal. s-azacytidine appears to extend the window during which tissue is competent to… More

Environmental stresses are a major focus in the development of economically improved crop cultivars but to date little progress has been made in developing processes which can improve on the understanding of stress tolerance or aid in the development of stress tolerant cultivars. the proposed… More

The proposed research is directed toward accessing the feasibility of using the green algae chlorella and its infection by a naturally occurring virus as an experimental plant system. the virus, paramecium bursaria chlorella virus-1, pbcv-1, will be investigated to determine its potential as a… More