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Article at sdstate.edu
08/14/2006
SDSU lands major research award
South Dakota State University has landed a major research award that will help grape growers everywhere.
South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Director Dr. John Kirby said SDSU professor Anne Fennell, a molecular biologist specializing in woody plants, assembled a team from SDSU and three other universities that won a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Fennell is the principal investigator.
SDSU will be the lead institution in the study and will use about $1.2 million of the grant to carry out its part of the study.
pe cultivars.
. . .
Other investigators working with Fennell in the project are Karen Schlauch, of Boston University; Grant Cramer, of the University of Nevada-Reno; and Julie Dickerson, of Iowa State University.
“This grant is a $3 million grant to study the functional genomics of bud endodormancy in grapes. Dormancy is a critical stage of plant development in that it impacts the timing of winter survival – when does the plant shut down and when does it wake up, and how does that relate to the environment? That’s controlled by the genetics of the plant, as well as the interaction with the environment,” Fennell said.
. . .
Dr. Gary Lemme, dean of SDSU’s College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, said the award points to the importance of specialty crops as South Dakota agriculture presses into the 21st century. There are already at least seven active farm wineries in South Dakota, Lemme noted, which generate substantial revenue though only about 70 acres in the entire state of South Dakota are now devoted to growing grapes. Fennell’s groundbreaking research will not only benefit those northern growers, but grape growers around the world.
“This award by the National Science Foundation is a recognition of the quality science that is being conducted here at South Dakota State University,” Lemme said. “Dr. Fennell should be complimented for developing the team of scientists from other universities to work with her so that we’re doing fundamental science for an intended use of promoting the economic development of South Dakota.”
SDSU lands major research award
South Dakota State University has landed a major research award that will help grape growers everywhere.
South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station Director Dr. John Kirby said SDSU professor Anne Fennell, a molecular biologist specializing in woody plants, assembled a team from SDSU and three other universities that won a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Fennell is the principal investigator.
SDSU will be the lead institution in the study and will use about $1.2 million of the grant to carry out its part of the study.
pe cultivars.
. . .
Other investigators working with Fennell in the project are Karen Schlauch, of Boston University; Grant Cramer, of the University of Nevada-Reno; and Julie Dickerson, of Iowa State University.
“This grant is a $3 million grant to study the functional genomics of bud endodormancy in grapes. Dormancy is a critical stage of plant development in that it impacts the timing of winter survival – when does the plant shut down and when does it wake up, and how does that relate to the environment? That’s controlled by the genetics of the plant, as well as the interaction with the environment,” Fennell said.
. . .
Dr. Gary Lemme, dean of SDSU’s College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, said the award points to the importance of specialty crops as South Dakota agriculture presses into the 21st century. There are already at least seven active farm wineries in South Dakota, Lemme noted, which generate substantial revenue though only about 70 acres in the entire state of South Dakota are now devoted to growing grapes. Fennell’s groundbreaking research will not only benefit those northern growers, but grape growers around the world.
“This award by the National Science Foundation is a recognition of the quality science that is being conducted here at South Dakota State University,” Lemme said. “Dr. Fennell should be complimented for developing the team of scientists from other universities to work with her so that we’re doing fundamental science for an intended use of promoting the economic development of South Dakota.”
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