Rubsico Expression in Organic and Non-Organic Plants
Experiment Performed By: Jim Anstey and Nathan Day
Abstract
Organic farming is a growing trend in food markets, as people look to organics for relief from pesticides and post harvest process like irradiation. The goal of our experiment was to determine if farming method (organic vs. non organic) had an effect on the amount of Rubisco present in plant tissues. To measure Rubisco levels, we focused on the Rubisco large chain sub-unit (RBCL). We used collard greens (B. oleracea) and parsley (P. crispum) obtained from supermarkets to test our hypothesis that organic farming is less stressful and should have a higher levels of RBCL. Protein isolation and western blot analysis, showed large amounts of RBCL present in all tissues, but it was difficult to measure quantitatively if one farming method yielded more RBCL. DNA isolation and real time PCR were used to analyze the number of RBCL DNA copies present in the plant tissues, and this data showed a significant difference in RBCL concentration across the two test species. However it was observed in P. crispum that organic faming had slightly higher levels of expression. Due to the lack of repeated data, we are not supporting our hypothesis, instead leaving a revised conclusion that farming method has little impact on RBCL expression.
Report :
Published on March 25, 2007 James Madison University