Text Box:                                   The main research objective Dr. Marton's laboratory has been the genetic manipulation of plants by cellular and molecular techniques (http://www.biol.sc.edu/faculty/marton.html). Phytoremediation/biomass improvement  research has  become the major long term commitment of his laboratory.  Development of  micropropagation/genetic engineering technologies of environmentally important/potential new crop plants such as cordgrasses, reed, cattails, rushes, sedges and the giant reed are  in progress (full list of species is available Czako’s link below). His transgenic plant systems are based on the Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer technology, that he pioneered to develop and in some cases different direct gene transfer techniques are also used, such as chemical, electroporation and DNA gun technologies. For the above monocot plant transformations Agrobacterium vectors have been constructed for altering heavy metal processing patterns (sequestration, accumulation) and for  Hg volatilization as well as for  enabling  plants to degrade different halogenated organic wastes.  The dehalogenation project is becoming a multi-disciplinary effort which involves the combination of protein engineering with genetic engineering technologies. His present interest areas include: physiological aspects of tissue cultures,  expression of transgenes, mechanism/ control of gene silencing, and epigenetic regulation of gene expression in plants. His long term research associate is Dr. Mihaly Czako who was instrumental in development of the above  research program (http://www.biol.sc.edu/~czako/Czako.htm).  In  the biotechnological applications, such as development of large scale micropropagation technologies and  tissue culture based  molecular breeding of new elit lines his major collaboration partner is the Southern Sun Biosystems Inc.(http://www.sosun.com/). Present Graduate students Marcie Eaddy and Jigna Desai.   Biomass is a chemically complex and very heterogeneous renewable resource. Most of the energy potential is locked in the cell wall’s lignocellulosic fraction, which is the most abundant material in the world. Lignocellulosic biomass can be utilized as environment friendly  energy source directly (energy pellets, thermal gasification),  indirectly after fermentation (hydrogen, alcohol), as an alternative to the limited crude oil and other fossil fuels. Additionally, the biomass energy only recycles CO2 and does not increase the global  CO2  concentration, therefore  it does not contribute to global warming.   The increased biomass production by manipulation of growth and  photosynthetic productivity as well as an improvement of chemical composition of the cell wall for  more efficient  unlocking of the energy potential and  for the increased  suitability for fiber, litter, and for restoration biology are  all amenable to improvement by modern  genetic technology and  are important future objectives of his laboratory.   Recent Publications  

Laszlo Marton

Professor of Biological Sciences
Ph.D., 1976, Genetics, Jozsef Attila University, Szeged, Hungary
803-777-6676
marton@biol.sc.edu

 

 

American Society of Plant Physiologists
International Society for Plant Molecular Biology