Growth Chambers and Tissue Culture
Six environmentally controlled walk-in plant growth rooms as well as five reach-in plant chambers are available for use. These growth rooms (Conviron Model BDW80) have an interior area of approximately 80 ft2 each. Plant tissue culture facilities include three six-foot laminar flow/biosafety hoods, two transfer rooms and 200 ft2 of controlled environmental space containing growth carts/ shelving and automatic lighting. Technologies including a Bio-Rad Biolistic PDS-1000/He gene gun, protoplast transformation, agro infiltration, and temperature-controlled platform orbital shakers are available to assist in routine plant transformation of Arabidopsis, Populus, and Nicotiana. Additionally, a SPECTRAmax PLUS384 microplate spectrophotometer for chlorophyll determination and enzyme assays, and LiCor 6400XT portable photosynthesis systems are available for gas exchange and fluorescence. A FluorCam 800MF closed imaging fluorometer is used to measure fluorescence emission in plate-based assays. New plant chambers with humidity control were purchased last FY that will support future endeavors of studying plant pathogen interactions (BSL-3 chamber). These growth chambers are especially designed to handle fungal pathogen/plant inoculations in a lab setting.