"This arrangement reduces the resource burden for each partner," said Gregory May, an Associate Scientist at the Noble Foundation. "Allowing new partners to join the collaborative effort leverages costs in adding new functionalities to the program."

The Noble Foundation's activities related to this project will focus on gene discovery in economically important forage grass and legume species. Traits of major significance to scientists at Noble include disease resistance, nutrient uptake, forage quality and health-promoting plant chemicals.

"Partnering with VBI will allow us to focus on what we do best," said May, "which is addressing complex biological phenomena through broad approaches afforded by the power of genomics."

Genomics is defined as the scientific study of the genome, which is the biochemical blueprint that directs how an organism develops and functions. The genome consists of tightly coiled threads of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and associated protein molecules, organized into structures called chromosomes. The DNA molecule contains many genes-the basic physical and functional units of heredity. The human genome is estimated to consist of approximately 30,000 genes.

Bioinformatics is a term used to describe the organizing and cataloging of complex genetic information into databases to better facilitate scientific study and research.

The partnership will aid in the discovery of new genes, which will in turn help Nevada researchers in a number of different areas. For example, John Cushman, professor of Biochemistry at Nevada and project leader for Nevada, works on methods for genetically engineering plant types that are more drought-, cold- and salt-tolerant.

"But in order to do that, we need genetic resources," Cushman said. "Our agreement with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation is not only for researchers in this particular area, but for anyone on our campus doing genomics-related research."

Cushman said the practical applications of the agreement are immense. In irrigated agriculture, for example, soil experiences a buildup of salt, reducing crop yield and ultimately eliminating the growth of certain plants completely.

"This problem affects about 42 percent of all worldwide irrigated agriculture," Cushman said. "It's a huge problem. That's why we want to genetically engineer salt-tolerant plants. For drought, there are certain plant models where the vegetative tissue will completely dry out, but you water them again and they come back to life.

"We want to figure out how these plants are able to do this. If we are able to do that, then we will be able to make drought-tolerant plants."

"The true power (in the agreement) will lie in allowing a diverse group of scientists access to a wide range of data to explore and synthesize into new knowledge," said Jennifer Weller, project leader at VBI, home to a world-class research program in bioinformatics.

Cushman said the agreement will significantly help speed the process for genomics and gene (DNA) sequencing researchers in the search for new gene types.

"This process of data processing, cleaning and polishing, is tremendously labor-intensive if you were to attempt to do it by hand," he said. "Our job will be made a whole lot easier. We generate data very well, but this frees us up to focus more on the biological significance of the data."

Bruno Sobral, Director of the VBI, described this type of collaboration as "a new business model for bioinformatics software development - one that is distributed, effective and economical. It brings together the strengths of biologists and software developers and has them work as peers to contribute equally in the areas they know best. This is also an open participation model, allowing new groups to enter the collaboration and bring new ideas for its improvement. All software in bioinformatics is incremental and evolutionary, so this model leverages that reality."

This ESTAP collaboration is described in more detail at www.vbi.vt.edu.

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