This equipment supplement application seeks funding for replacement of a broken growth chamber for culturing plant materials used in the parent project. The model plant Arabidopsis must be grown and maintained in a controlled environments. In particular, our plants are routinely transgenic containing foreign DNAs and considered “genetically modified organisms” (GMOs) and thus must be contained in a specified chamber. We are also working with pathogenic bacteria that induce immune responses in plants. Such pathogens also require containment. We have been using the Conviron plant growth chambers for these critical purposes. We had two old growth chambers (27 years) at the beginning of the parent project. An accidental floor flooding and leak above the growth chamber facility occurred and one of the growth chambers was severely damaged and we requested funding through the same supplement program in 2021 to replace it. In February 2022, the other old chamber failed due to old age. Two growth chambers are minimally required to grow plants with and without pathogen treatments. I thus request funding herein to purchase a new chamber to replace the failed chamber to ensure steady progress of the project and reduce the chance of cross-contamination of plant materials. To ensure the growth chamber operates correctly and are maintained properly, we propose to purchase the growth chamber from the same company Conviron so that our lab is familiar with the use of the chamber. Our University greenhouse and facility staff team will commit to the preventive maintenance of the growth chamber. We expect to have the new chamber in use as early as August 2022 should the funding become available in July. The two new growth chambers will provide a solid foundation for supplying plant materials in this funding period and future renewal of the project.

Project Narrative: This project is focused on understanding calcium signaling mechanisms that are highly conserved in all eukaryotes. Using model plants to study such mechanisms takes advantage of genetic approaches easily available in plants versus in animals. Calcium signaling is highly relevant to human health because calcium is a second messenger in all physiological processes from immune response to neuronal development.