Plant Genomics Internships at Missouri (PGI@MU)

The University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) is a nationally recognized center for plant genetics research and has been awarded over ten grants from the National Science Foundation to fund research in plant structural and functional genomics. MU consistently ranks among the top five universities in the country for NSF funding in the area of plant genomics. MU's graduate programs in plant sciences are highly competitive and attract some of the best doctoral students and post-doctorate researchers in the country. Faculty in biological sciences, biochemistry, plant sciences, and the USDA/ARS are eager to provide training opportunities for undergraduates who wish to participate in collaborative research. Research areas include: genome organization, gene expression, signal transduction, hormone action, organelle biochemistry, disease resistance, and crop plant productivity. Genomics approaches to understanding these problems include: genetic and physical mapping, multiple methods for functional analysis, and bioinformatics.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must meet the basic eligibility requirements.
• Students must be majoring in biology, biochemistry, plant science, or a related field and intending to pursue graduate work in one of the life sciences.
• Students must be entering their sophomore, junior, or senior year in college. Freshmen with previous research experience may apply.

Faculty Mentors for Plant Genomics Internship at MU (PGI@MU)

Applicants are reminded to spend time reading more specific details about faculty mentors' research interests on the various web sites before ranking faculty mentors on the application!

Biochemistry

David Emerich — Proteomic Analysis of Mutations in Consecutive Steps of the Citric Acid Cycle

Tom Guilfoyle — Transcription factors that regulate auxin responses

Bruce McClure — Cell-cell interactions in pollen recognition and rejection

Jan Miernyk — Cloning and molecular analysis of genes involved in the stress response

Scott Peck — Proteomics of protein phosphorylation and protein kinases

Joseph Polacco — Characterizing plant (Arabidopsis) mutants defective in transcriptional factors which respond to nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus) depletion

Elizabeth Rogers — How do plants get iron from the soil: Map-based cloning of an iron underaccumulation mutation.

Jay Thelen — Proteomic analysis of oilseed development, Immunocytochemical analysis of seed filling in soybean and Arabidopsis

Shuqun Zhang — Genetic analysis of MAP kinase signaling in plants

Biological Sciences

Jim Birchler — Studies of centromere structure and function using fluorescent in situ hybridization to maize chromosomes

Karen Cone — Analysis of chromatin gene mutations in maize: How does changing chromatin packaging alter gene expression?

Tim Holtsford — Ecological genetics of evolution of self-pollination in Nicotiana (wild tobacco)

M. Alejandra Jaramillo — Plant evolution: morphological innovations and diversification in the tropics

Mannie Liscum — Environmental and hormonal regulation of plant growth and development

Kathy Newton — Plant molecular genetics; mitochondrial genetics

Chris Pires — Functional genomics of Polyploids

Patrick Shiu — Meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA

John Walker — Molecular analysis of signaling pathways in plants

Plant Sciences

Georgia Davis — Maize functional genomics of insect, fungal, and drought stress

Walter Gassmann — Cloning a new Arabidopsis disease resistance gene

Melissa Goellner Mitchum — Molecular plant-nematode interactions

Henry Nguyen — Functional genomics of plant responses to stress environments or mapping of genes to the soybean genetic and physical maps

Jim Schoelz — Molecular characterization of plant defenses against virus infection

Gary Stacey — Characterization of the OPT transporters in Arabidopsis, Microarray analysis of gene expression in the symbiotic bacterium, Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Functional genomics of root hair infection in soybean