A quest for wild lesquerella, a mustard family plant with oils that might be used for industrial products, is taking place this spring and summer in Mexico. ARS scientists and colleagues from Arizona State University and Mexico's Antonio Narro Agricultural University, Coahuila, will hunt for wild relatives of lesquerella along roadsides, hillsides and gullies in 10 Mexican states. Seeds of the yellow-flowered plant contain compounds called hydroxy fatty acids. They may be alternatives to those now obtained from imported castor oil to make resins, waxes, lubricating greases, cosmetics and other products. America imports castor oil from India, Brazil, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Indonesia. Natural thickeners made from chemicals on the coat of lesquerella seeds might be used in food processing. What's more, lesquerella's protein-rich meal, left over after the oil is removed, may supplement cattle feed. Scientists anticipate that breeding America's Lesquerella fendleri with wild relatives may yield offspring that bear bigger seeds with more oil and more hydroxy fatty acids. This might boost lesquerella's potential as a profitable new crop for growers in the Southwest.
U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory, Phoenix, AZ
David A. Dierig,(602) 379-4356, ext. 265.

An international quest to reveal the structure of nearly all genes in a cousin of mustard may be finished by 2000, four years ahead of schedule. Scientists expect the project to yield the first essentially complete catalog of all genes in a typical plant's life cycle, from seed to flower to fruit. ARS scientists in California teamed with colleagues at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania to work on part of this global investigation of Arabidopsis thaliana. So far, the California-Pennsylvania team has detailed the structure of about 1,500 genes, with 6,000 remaining to complete their share of the project. They post their findings on an Internet databank so researchers worldwide can look for structural similarities to genes from humans, mice or other organisms, including Drosophila fruit flies and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. That shortens the time needed to uncover a gene's function. Once biotechnologists determine the structure and function of a useful gene, such as one for disease resistance, they may move it into other plants. A. thaliana has become a botanical "lab rat" because it has much less genetic material than crops like tomatoes, corn or wheat. But information about A. thaliana genes should apply to these and thousands of other plants.
ARS/University of California at Berkeley Plant Gene Expression Center, Albany, CA
Athanasios Theologis, (510) 559-5911.