Researchers at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and Michigan State University receive a four-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The grant will enable scientists to identify and study targeted molecules, small signaling peptides (SSPs), in a model legume species, Medicago truncatula, as well as alfalfa, a commercially significant crop.
“We want to understand how these under-studied molecules affect plant development, especially root growth and nodulation,” researcher Wolf Scheible said. “Currently, all we know is that a few such peptides are key components in signaling pathways that manage the internal developmental decisions plants make.”
Noble Foundation researchers further expect that SSPs, which are encoded by many, often poorly marked genes, may also control plant metabolism, plant-microbe interactions and nutrient stress tolerance. This grant will enable this exploration.
More information is available here: http://www.noble.org/news/news-releases/2015/15-037/
