PECASE: Investigation of Disease-Resistance Proteins in Flowering Plants

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Title: PECASE: Investigation of Disease-Resistance Proteins in Flowering Plants Institution: University of California-Berkeley The focus of this PECASE award proposal is threefold: (1) teaching and training in computational biology at the undergraduate and graduate levels; (2) continued development of computational methods for problems in molecular biology, and (3) new investigation, using these tools, into disease resistance proteins and pathways, and their effector molecules in bacteria, viruses and fungi. The team will apply new algorithms and software to the analysis and elucidation of key determinants of innate immunity in flowering plants, to predict structure, function, pathway and complex involvement, and so on, for these important protein families. Biologist collaborators will investigate these predictions experimentally, providing critical feedback. Since plants cannot move to escape pathogen attack, they have developed sophisticated strategies and defense mechanisms. Many of these strategies have corollaries in insects and other animals, including human. Because of this, research into plant disease resistance can be expected to produce insights that are relevant not only for genetic engineering of new strains of plants with improved disease resistance (and corresponding increased crop production, and reduction of world hunger), but also to improve our understanding of innate immunity in all eukaryotic organisms, and produce medical and pharmaceutical advances important for human health. The biologists will provide critical feedback, direction, and experimental validation of predictions of protein function and structure. Software and database technologies will be developed to enable the high-throughput classification and inclusion of new plant and pathogen proteins as they are discovered. This synergistic collaboration is designed to combine both hypothesis-driven and hypothesis-generating approaches and the different domain expertise and background knowledge contained in the two groups into a unified understanding of these important protein families and pathways. This project was originally funded as a CAREER award, and was converted to a Presidential Early Career Award for Engineers and Scientists (PECASE) award in September 2004.