Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C51528X/1
Application of a novel high resolution mass spectrometric imaging technique to elucidate nitrogen and carbon nutrition of orchids.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor J Leake, University of Sheffield, Animal and Plant Sciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor D Read, University of Sheffield, School of Biosciences
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor M Burrell, University of Sheffield, School of Biosciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Sheffield, Animal and Plant Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Terrestrial
- ENRIs:
- Natural Resource Management
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Environmental Microbiology
- Environmental Physiology
- Conservation Ecology
- Community Ecology
- Abstract:
- Orchids belong to the family Orchidaceae which, with around 20,000 species, is the largest in the Plant Kingdom. Orchids hold a particular fascination because of their spectacular flowers and the rarity of many species- which has increased in recent years as a result of plant collecting, intensification of agriculture and land use changes have placed many species in jeopardy. One feature of orchids that distinguishes them from many other plants is that their seeds are so reduced in size that their germination and development in nature is dependent upon specialized associations with fungi in the soil. These fungi infect the germinating seeds and supply the young plants with carbon and nutrients. This unique form of nutrition continues throughout the lives of over 200 Orchid species that never develop green pigments and are parasitic upon fungi. Whilst this mode of nutrition has been known for over a century, the details of the chemical compounds that are characteristic of it are unknown. This project plans to apply a recently developed technique in which a laser beam is used to vaporise compounds contained in the surface of sections through orchid tissue and to pass the products into a mass spectrometer enabling the individual carbon and nitrogen containing compounds to be identified and their concentrations determined. By repeating this process at regularly spaced positions across the tissue, a map of the composition and concentrations of carbon and nitrogen-containing compounds can be made in the orchid cells. This approach allows differences in amounts and types of key compounds to be mapped in cells containing the fungal partner, in adjacent cells in which carbon is stored by the plant and the fungus excluded, and in plant vascular tissue through which nutrients and carbon pass up into the shoots.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C51528X/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Small Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Small Grants
This grant award has a total value of £31,468
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £519 | £6,891 | £7,198 | £13,690 | £3,170 |
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