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News Release 08-014

National Science Foundation Awards $50 Million for Collaborative Plant Biology Project to Tackle Greater Science Questions

Project will provide greater understanding of implications for environment, agriculture, energy and life-sustaining organisms

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A plant on a keyboard symbolizes the use of cyberinfrastructure to further biological plant science.

The iPlant Collaborative will use sophisticated cyberinfrastructure to enable the sharing of scientific data and resources to further biological plant science.

Credit: © 2008 JupiterImages Corporation

 

Lichen-covered boulders in the Superstition Mountains close to the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Lichen-covered boulders in the Superstition Mountains close to the Phoenix metropolitan area. Lichens are actually made up of two plants: an algae and a fungus, living in a symbiotic relationship. Scientists rely on them as a bioindicator species, like a natural early warning system.

Credit: ©Frank Bungartz, Ph.D., Arizona State University Lichen Herbarium

 

Plant spores scientists are studying as part of the "Tree of Life" initiativ

Spores from the liverwort Podomitrium phyllanthus. This liverwort is one of many plant species scientists are studying as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported "Tree of Life" initiative. The goal of the initiative is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of early land plants, as well as to answer such questions as how multicellular aquatic plants evolved, what plants first colonized land, how are the early plant lineages related to each other, and what genetic, cellular and structural changes did they undergo. (Year of image: 2002)

Credit: Photo by Karen Renzaglia; courtesy Dan Nickrent.

 

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National Science Foundation Director Arden L. Bement announces $50 million iPlant Collaborative Award during press conference with Governor Janet Napolitano.

Credit: Jim Crawford, National Science Foundation