Bioproducts, Bioprocesses and Bioinformatics

Dr. Laurian Robert
Program Representative

Isolates, clones and manipulates useful genes in crop plants to improve quality, insect and disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance.

The Bioproducts, Bioprocesses and Bioinformatics program consists of 7 study areas:

Crop Genomics: Objectives are to Identify and develop molecular genetic markers linked to strategic traits in barley, oats and soybeans for marker assisted breeding and crop improvement, and to discover the genetic basis of these traits.

Environmental stress: Develops molecular strategies for improvements of oilseed, corn and small grain cereal resistance to cold, freezing and drought stress.

Gene Expression: Elucidates mechanisms that regulate gene expression and develops strategies and technologies for targeting transgene expression in plants.

Gene Flow and Fertility: Develops novel technologies to limit the spread of transgenes among plants, preserve elite germplasm and manipulate flower fertility to produce hybrid seeds.

Insect resistance: Develops molecular strategies that can confer resistance to major insect pests (soy cyst nematodes, European corn borers, corn root worms, flea beetles) in corn and oilseeds in order to improve yields and to reduce the use of chemical pesticides.

Molecular pathology: Develops new strategies for disease resistance by increasing knowledge of plant/pathogen interactions and transferring genes encoding resistance to Fusarium disease in corn and wheat, and Sclerotinia in soybean.

Value-added Technologies: Identifies seed components with high value, and develops methods for their isolation, purification and characterization.