Mentor: Dr. Christopher Currey
Graduate Students: Jaden Gimondo and Ryan Niepagen
Funding: Fine Americas inc., SWP Donors, and the Agricultural Endowment Board
Plant stress reduces yields in agricultural and horticultural food crops and reduces appearance quality in ornamental horticultural crops. One very prevalent type of stress in plants is heat stress which is caused by consistent above optimal temperatures. The goal of this project was to try and see if the addition of amino acids was able to lessen the stress of these high temperatures. Amino acids were hypothesized to help with heat stress because they are the building blocks of proteins and proteins are what carry out the functions of the plant. It was hoped that by providing the plant with extra of these amino acids it would reduce stress on the plant.
