The NSF BREAD grant has a goal to develop unisexual flowers in rice. The Kausch lab contributes advanced and innovative transgenic capabilities and supported two graduate students, (Adam Deresienski, MS/2011; John Ventura MS/2012). We sponsor highly recommended undergraduate internship training that takes the form of a 10-hr per week or an intensive 20-hr per week two-semester long course during the senior year. This effort is also in collaboration with CIAT in Cali, Columbia. The URI program trains 6-8 students per year, or an estimated 24-30 students over the lifespan of this grant. In collaboration with Yale and California State University at Fresno, a Minority Serving Institution we have an established Summer Minority Training Program. CSUF, a Hispanic serving institution, has mainly an undergraduate educational mission with a large student base of underrepresented minorities (mainly Hispanic) interested in the biological sciences. We have submitted three patents and one manuscript on this work.
Advanced Plant Transformation
