and knowing which ones are 

 best suited to grow in certain 

 environments? 



Kane begins in the field. 

 Last fall, he harvested 100 

 plants from each of four sites 

 on Florida's Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts: St. George 

 Island State Park in Florida's 

 panhandle, Egmont Key 

 National Wildlife Refuge on 

 the Gulf of Mexico near St. 

 Petersburg, Sebastian Inlet 

 on the Atlantic coast and 

 Anastasia State Park, just 

 south of Jacksonville. 

 Samples are also being 

 gathered from North Caro- 

 lina beaches to compare the 

 DNA of a distant population. 



Next, in an extraction 

 process that separates and 

 purifies DNA from leaf 

 tissue, Kane can look at its 

 genetic blueprint. DNA is 

 made up of units called 

 bases. Primers (composed of 

 about 10 bases) recognize 

 and bind to complementary 

 sites on the extracted DNA. 

 Where the primers bind will 

 be determined by the 

 composition of the DNA. 

 Kane copies the length of 

 DNA between primer 

 binding sites. These copies 

 of DNA are separated and 

 stained with a dye that 

 usually fluoresces when 

 bound to the DNA under 

 ultraviolet light. Each DNA 

 will produce a pattern of 

 bands (the DNA fingerprint) 

 in the presence of the primer. 

 Each band is a genetic 

 marker. Kane compares the 

 DNA of different plants by 

 noting the number of bands 

 they have in common with a 

 particular primer. To 

 increase the number of markers bein 

 compared, he looks at seven to 10 

 primers. This way, he can see the 

 variation among individuals and 



Before beginning the sea oats research project, 

 Kane made a name for himself micropropagating 

 water lilies and freshwater wetland plants in his lab. 



I populations. 



Early results from three of the 

 four sites show significant genetic 

 difference within each site. In other 



words, Kane doesn't have to 

 travel 100 miles along the 

 coast to find genetic variation 

 among sea oats. The signifi- 

 cance of this finding will be 

 borne out in the growth trials, 

 he says. 



"We're seeing in fact 

 what appears to be — but 

 this must be confirmed — 

 significant genetic varia- 

 tions," he says. "This tells us 

 that plants are different. We 

 can see genetic variability." 



From there, based on 

 what the DNA fingerprinting 

 says about genetic variability, 

 certain distinct sea oats will 

 be cloned in the laboratory 

 using a technique called 

 micropropagation. Buds of 

 the clones will be cultured 

 into genetically identical 

 shoots and grown out in a 

 greenhouse, where differ- 

 ences in their growth rate 

 and morphology (the form 

 of the plant and its leaf, for 

 instance) will be observed. 



After growing for three 

 to four months, the cloned sea 

 oats will be taken to the four 

 original collection sites and 

 planted. These "reciprocal 

 transplants" will test multiple 

 copies of the plants at every 

 site. 



"We will evaluate them 

 for growth, flowering, seed 

 set and root development," 

 Kane says. "We completely 

 analyze the growth of each 

 and how they grow differ- 

 ently." 



When the research is 

 completed in 1 1/2 to 2 years, 

 Kane expects to have some 

 answers to the questions that 

 dog the Florida nursery 

 industry and regulators. 

 And he hopes to build a better sand 

 dune by understanding how sea oats 

 adapt to certain beach conditions, 

 wherever they may be. □ 



COASTWATCH 13 



