REU Supplement to Support Research of Undergraduate Student: Glycerol Metabolism and Its Role in Biotrophy Versus Necrotrophy in an Arabidopsis/Fungal Hemibiotroph Model System

The undergraduate intern, Mr. Patrick Phillips, for whom funds are requested will perform independent research projects that work towards the completion of a portion of the NSF-funded project (IOS 0749731) related to elucidating the role of glycerol metabolism in plant defense. The objectives of their research will be to characterize second-site suppressor mutants of gly1 plants. These suppressors were isolated by screening gly1 M2 plants for mutants that showed, wild-type-like or better, resistance response to Colletotrichum higginsianum. These screens were carried out by undergraduate student, Ms. Guerra, Ms. Carolyn Butt and Mr. Steven Bliss. A total of 32 putative suppressors were isolated and of these 2 are currently being characterized by Mr. Patrick Phillips.