STACEY LAB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

The laboratory is located in the new Life Science Center on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, MO, located approximately 2 hours East of St. Louis and West of Kansas City and only 30 minutes from Jefferson City, the State Capitol. Columbia, MO is a city of ~100,000 with a rich cultural life and the facilities for a variety of outdoor activities. Access to Columbia is conveniently provided through shuttle service from the major airports in St. Louis or Kansas City or by direct flights into the Columbia Airport.

The University of Missouri operates a very successful and highly active Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (website: http://www.lsurop.missouri.edu/) and students participating in the project described below would be strongly encouraged to participate in this summer program and take full advantage of the opportunities provided. The LSUROP summer program involves >100 undergraduates who come to the University of Missouri from all over the country.

Two potential projects include:

• PROJECT 1:

  The intern will work closely with a Postdoctoral Associate in the laboratory to map genes involved in fungal resistance to the soybean physical and genetic map. These map locations can then be correlated to known quantitative trait loci involved in fungal resistance. A number of genes have already been mapped and the intern will be involved in the further characterization of these genes. For example, this work may involve the use of quantitative, real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to measure the level of expression of target genes after fungal infection.

• PROJECT 2:

  The intern will work closely with a Postdoctoral Associate to characterize and map transposon insertions in soybean. This project is part of a larger, community effort to develop an insertional mutation resource for functional studies of soybean genes. A variety of mutants are available that need to be characterized with regard to map position, flanking sequences, and phenotype. The project will give the intern the opportunity to learn modern molecular methods for gene analysis.

In both cases, the intern will work closely with an experienced Postdoctoral Associate and will be carefully instructed in all methods required. The student will also be able to interact with the other postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduates and technicians in the laboratory. The student will participate in weekly laboratory group meetings and will be expected to present their results during this meeting at their end of their stay in the lab. The Life Science Center has a number of excellent labs working on plant science, as well as other areas of biology, and presents an exciting, interactive environment conducive to an excellent summer research experience.