Grant Supports Study of How Carnivorous Plants Repurpose Genes to Digest Prey
Published:27 Oct.2020 Source:Penn State
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State researcher has received funding to examine the genetic mechanisms that enable carnivorous plants to repurpose defense proteins to digest their insect prey.
With support from a more than $975,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Tanya Renner, assistant professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is leading the research, which is aimed at understanding how prey digestion among distantly related carnivorous plants has evolved and is regulated. Victor Albert, Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, is co-principal investigator.