Andrea Gallavotti, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, examining young maize plants in the greenhouse.
Andrea Gallavotti, professor in the Department of Plant Biology, has been awarded a grant worth $1,088,678 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the project, “Collaborative Research: PlantTransform: Morphogenic-based mechanisms of maize regeneration.”
Gallavotti, who is attached to the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, is the principal investigator of the three-year project, for the period Jan 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027. His co-principal investigators on this NSF-funded project are David Jackson, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Bastiaan Bargmann, Virginia Tech, and Margaret Young, Elizabeth City State University.
Gallavotti completed his graduate studies at the University of Milan in Italy, and trained as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California San Diego and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. He joined the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers in 2012.
What is being studied, or what is the scope of the research?
In short, the mechanisms of plant regeneration, the unique ability of plants to generate new plants from different cell types.
What are the objectives of the research?
To study how certain proteins called morphogenic factors can reprogram differentiated cells into forming new maize plants.
Why does this research matter?
This research will provide insights into the molecular basis of tissue- and genotype-dependent regeneration, helping to identify and eventually bypass roadblocks to regeneration. This is important to improve our ability to rapidly modify plant genomes for generating crops resilient to environmental changes.
What are the practical implications and potential benefits going forward?
Our understanding of the molecular steps behind regeneration is essential for the transformation of different plant species. This is still a significant bottleneck in our ability to manipulate plant genomes for specific purposes. Overcoming this limitation is particularly relevant in monocotyledonous – one of the two main groups of flowering plants – crops such as maize, which alone provide most of the calories consumed by humans.
