Friday, July 12, 2002

WRITER: Natasha Splaine, 706/583-0599, rcomm@ovpr.uga.edu
CONTACTS: Karen Holbrook, 706/542-5806, kholbrook@uga.edu; Robert Ivarie, 706/542-1424, ivarie@uga.edu; Andrew Paterson, 706/583-0162, paterson@uga.edu

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AWARDS GRANT TO UGA’S GENES FOR GEORGIA

ATHENS, Ga. — The National Science Foundation Partnerships for Innovation program has awarded a grant to the University of Georgia for a new initiative that will unite genetic research with economic growth. Aptly named Genes for Georgia, this effort will allow UGA scientists to map out genes of plants and animals important to Georgia agriculture and make this information accessible to regional agricultural and biotechnology industries. The total award is $600,000 for two years.

"This award will enable our scientists to explore genomes of high economic value," said UGA provost Karen Holbrook, who is the lead investigator on the award. Participation of a senior institutional administrator is an unusual requirement for this particular NSF program.

Genes for Georgia was conceived by UGA scientists Andrew Paterson, a professor of botany, genetics and crop and soil sciences, and Robert Ivarie, a professor of genetics, who will work to decipher the genetic codes of chicken and cotton, collecting this information into what they call "gene encyclopedias."

This study will serve as a pilot project, but eventually the researchers want to create gene encyclopedias for each of Georgia’s top 10 agricultural commodities, which together have an estimated economic impact of nearly $15 billion a year.

"The encyclopedias themselves will represent the ‘spellings’ of a large number of genes in plants and animals that are commercially important to the state of Georgia," said Paterson, who will be working on the cotton genome.

Using tissues from economically important commodities, such as cotton, peanuts or chickens, the scientists can extract and sequence DNA, discovering the "spelling" of each gene.

"Each one of these sequences becomes essentially a page in the gene encyclopedia and these sequences identify the gene," said Ivarie, who will sequence the chicken genome.

These pages will be compiled into an entire gene encyclopedia for that particular organism and then will be made Web-accessible with the help of computing and networking specialists. Bio-based companies could use this information to improve the quality and yield of their products.

Because transforming genetic research into economic growth requires private investment, small bio-based companies often can’t afford this costly research, making them unable to compete with larger, national companies.

"Smaller companies in the state really lack the resources to do this," said Ivarie. "The idea here is to create the encyclopedias and make them available to small companies, Georgia farmers and geneticists who are working on trade improvements."

Genes for Georgia scientists also will help Georgia’s bio-based industries interpret the genetic data. The program has the potential to usher in a new era of innovation for these industries, Paterson said.

To stimulate interest among these industries, the program will include workshops to educate target businesses and stakeholders. The first of these workshops is scheduled for next summer.

"We hope it will be a demonstration project," Paterson said. "We want to engage a community of stakeholders in Georgia’s bio-based industries and educate them on what can be learned from a gene encyclopedia."

More information about "Genes for Georgia" is available on the Web at www.plantgenome.uga.edu/g4g.

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