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INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AT THE DONALD DANFORTH PLANT SCIENCE CENTER AND APPLICATIONS TO NASA GOALS. R.N.Beachy and K.R.Schubert, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St.Louis, MO.

     The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center was established in 1999 as an independent, not for profit research Center in St. Louis, MO. The Center is dedicated to fundamental research in plant biology that addresses topics that benefit food production and human nutrition, and where research results are readily transferred for commercial development and ultimate use. It  is also expected that the Center will provide a training ground for students, post-doctoral and other scientists to receive training and experience in cutting edge fields of research. Research at the Center will stress the integration of scientific disciplines that include computational and structural biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology and genetics. Through institutional partnerships the research activities at the Center will interface with research in agriculture and medicine.

The Center will include facilities for the physical  characterization of protein structure, from which researchers will develop novel mechanisms to alter function to achieve one or more of the goals established by the NASA Advanced life support project. Among the research topics at the Center are projects that are supported by the NASA grant to the Danforth Center: (1) Development of gene switch technology for regulation of cellular metabolism and plant growth and development; (2) Metabolic channeling in complex metabolic pathways: Increasing metabolic flux through biochemical pathways; (3) IMPDH, a key biosynthetic, regulatory and assimilatory enzyme in plants: Studies of protein structure, function and gene expression; (4) Spatial and temporal compartmentalization of biosynthetic pathways; (5) Increasing sodium uptake and storage capacity of leafy vegetables; (6) Modulation of plant structure and protein accumulation through bioengineering.  The relevance of these projects to the goals of NASA will be presented.