Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health, Ithaca, New York

• Scope of work under Recovery Act

Amount: $275,000

Repair of critical deferred maintenance including replacing windows to prevent water infiltration damaging structure and contents.

Milestones- To be updated as milestones are completed.

Construction Photos

Research at the Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health

Scientists at the Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health do research at the interface of human nutrition and agriculture to improve the nutritional quality and health promoting properties of food crops. For example, they are using specific genes linked to Vitamin E synthesis in corn are being used to develop more nutritious corn and other cereal varieties. The Holley Center has also developed a simple, inexpensive cellular model that simulates digestion and nutrient absorption that allows researcher to better understand how people actually absorb nutrients.

They also create innovative pest and disease management methods that reduce the need for synthetic chemical pesticides while still providing long-term control. Researchers at the Holley Center have discovered a fungus that is more highly virulent against a broad range of caterpillar pests than any now on the market.

In addition, the center maintains an extensive collection of fungal pathogens and insect and nematode pests, which is a unique resource that supports research at the center as well as helping other researchers.

Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research Unit

Conduct research at the interface of human nutrition and agriculture to improve the nutritional quality and health promoting properties of food crops.

• Improving crop mineral nutrition and plant tolerance to mineral and metal-related stresses in the soil.
• Use of genomics, proteomics, molecular genetics and computational biology to dissect complex traits in plants and identify the genes and mechanisms underlying these
• Integrating computational biology and bioinformatics with genomic and genetic-based methodologies to model and better understand gene regulatory circuitry at the cellular level.

Biological Integrated Pest Management Research Unit

Provide innovative pest and disease management methods that reduce the use of synthetic chemical pesticides while still providing long-term control. Research includes both basic and applied areas in order to understand how best to interfere with pest/pathogen life cycles and/or host-pest/pathogen interactions. Targets include insects, nematodes, diseases, and viruses attacking field and greenhouse crops and invasive weed species in semi-natural and natural settings.

Approaches include genomics, genetic resistance, development of biopesticides and biological control agents, risk analysis and post-release monitoring, secondary metabolism, and genetic manipulation in host and control agent or pathogen populations. An extensive culture collection of fungal pathogens of insect and nematode pests is a unique resource that supports many of our research efforts. Key commodities are potato, small grains, greenhouse and nursery crops, and natural ecosystems, but results are applicable to many crops and agroecosystems in general.

Plant-Microbe Interaction Research Unit

This research unit focuses on the model plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato DC3000, which causes speck disease on tomatoes and the model laboratory plant Arabidopsis. Close relatives to this bacteria cause disease on virtually every major vegetable crop.

The molecular processes inside the plant host and bacterial pathogen cells, as well as the "chemical communication" between these cells, can all be monitored using powerful, state-of- the-art technologies. These processes are governed by proteins that are, in turn, encoded by genes defined by the DNA sequence - the genome. This group focuses on using a combination of computational and laboratory methods to identify genes in the P. syringae genome and determine how the expression of these genes is controlled. Roughly speaking, they "reverse engineer" the genetic "circuits" in the bacterial cell related to interactions with its environment, including interactions with plant cells and plant-associated compounds. The end results of the research are used by other groups as starting points for detailed studies of plant defense mechanisms.

Project Photographs Before Construction