Graduate student Tameka Bailey looks at some of the rice she studies along with Ken Korth, professor of plant pathology. Bailey has identified proteins in rice that regulate the plants' response to drought and disease. Russell Cothren, photo.
(Photo: Submitted)
FAYETTEVILLE,
Ark. — A University of Arkansas graduate
student is helping rice farmers grow better crops by studying the plant at its
most fundamental molecular level.
Cell and
molecular biology major Tameka Bailey’s research focuses on a certain type of
proteins and the molecular mechanisms that trigger rice’s response to stressful
conditions, such as drought, high salinity or a biological disease called rice
blast. Understanding how plants respond to these stressors will help scientists
and farmers develop better ways to grow rice in less than optimal conditions.
“The proteins
have so much power in the cell, it’s amazing,” Bailey said. “They can change the
whole fate of the plant.”
Working with
Yinong Yang, a former professor of plant pathology in the Dale Bumpers College
of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences who is now at Penn State University,
Bailey uncovered the gene responsible
for a molecular mechanism that helps regulate rice blast resistance through the
production of ethylene, an organic gas found in nature. Bailey also studied
proteins called mitogen-activated protein kinases. These proteins regulate the
plants’ response to external stimuli, such as drought or disease. The
particular type of kinase Bailey studied is the last one in a cascade of
kinases that convert signals from receptors into responses from the plant.
She found that
these proteins regulate the plants’ production of an acid called abscisic acid,
which led to stress tolerance in drought and high salinity conditions, a trait
that appears to be conserved in other types of plants. Bailey isolated and
characterized these proteins, which are responsible for activating the plant’s
response to stress.
To give rice
plants a boost in their ability to tolerate stressful conditions, Bailey used
genetic engineering to create plants that would express a great deal of the
protein. To do this, she inserted extra copies of the protein kinase DNA into
the DNA of a rice plant. The transgenic rice plant then expressed an abundance
of that particular protein. In contrast, Bailey produced transgenic plants
where the protein kinase was suppressed to see how the plants responded to
stress in the absence of the protein of interest. Her studies showed that the
extra boost of protein kinases led to increased drought tolerance.
“Those traits
are really important to rice farmers,” Bailey said. “Making a direct
contribution to this is really a plus to my work.”
“Her study
contributes to our understanding of plant stress signaling mechanism and may
help improve crop disease resistance and stress tolerance in the near future,”
said Yang, who continues her own research at Penn
State University.
Bailey has
co-authored a chapter on signal transduction of rice disease resistance.
Because of her research, she also was awarded a study and travel grant from the
Asian Rice Foundation.
Bailey, a native
of Gould, Ark.,
is expected to graduate from the University
of Arkansas this fall with a
doctorate in cell and molecular biology.