Ms. Gao enrolled in the Interdepartmental Genetics Program as a Ph. D. student in the fall of 2000. She studies the signal transduction pathway in the soybean-Phytophthora sojae interaction. She is involved in mapping Rps4 and Rps6 genes that are temperature sensitive. At elevated temperatures they fail to confer race-specific resistance. Earlier, PI identified a DNA fragment carrying nucleotide binding site (NBS), a domain identified in most resistance genes, and mapped putatively to the Rps4/6 locus. Ms. Gao is collaborating with Dr. Sandhu and Dr. Santra in developing a high resolution map for this complex disease resistance locus.

Ms. Gao also studies the non-host resistance of Arabisopsis thaliana against P. sojae. She has initiated a mutant screen for susceptible Arabidopsis genotypes against this non-pathogen. She will screen both EMS and fast neutron mutants to achieve her goal.

Ms. Gao's projects include positional cloning of the Phytophthora resistance gene Rps1-k and characterization of the complex locus that carries Rps4 and Rps6.