Project Number: 3602-22000-016-05
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Mar 18, 2008
End Date: Mar 17, 2013

Objective:
Objectives and proposed deliverables for the SCA: The SCA objectives are to identify wheat genes and pathways that are important in resistance and susceptibility against the Hessian fly. Deliverables include mRNA and protein sequences, expression data and protein function.

Approach:
How linkage will be accomplished: This linkage will be accomplished by utilizing the expertise of a postdoctoral researcher in the Gelvin lab with experience expression-level quantification. We have recently received microarray that utilized laser-captured wheat tissue harvested from Hessian fly larval feeding sites. Within the next month we will also receive data from a 454-sequencing project utilizing this same tissue. These two projects provide a huge amount of data that must be analyzed and compared in a timely manner so that the next phase of research can begin. Recently, Dr. Kurt Saltzmann, the postdoc who was to analyze these data sets, moved to another ARS lab in Kansas, leaving the project unfinished. At this time and with short notice, the Williams lab does not have a person who can take on this project immediately. Thus, by adding $12,000 to the existing SCA with the Purdue Biology Department (Gelvin PI), a postdoc with the proper experience could work with us to analyze the data over the summer. In this way, we would not need to wait until FY2009 to hire a new person with the desired qualifications.