Project Number: 1907-21000-030-03
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 15, 2004
End Date: Sep 14, 2009

Objective:
The objectives of this cooperative research project are to increase our understanding of plant genome organization through sequence evaluation, and to develop methodologies to leverage emerging sequencing technologies for the purpose of sequencing and genotyping plant germplasm.

Approach:
1) Development of physical markers for cereals. We will use regions of synteny established between the rice genome sequence and cereal sequences to identify rice gene models for physical marker development. The sequences will be used to generate primers for PCR amplification from cereal BAC clones. The results will enrich comparative cereal maps and anchor cereal genes to their respective physical maps. 2) Genomic cereal sequences will be generated from cereal BACs for the purpose of identifying genes and anchoring these to a genetic and physical map framework. 3) Finished genome sequence will be generated from BACs associated with QTL for the purpose of identifying genes associated with crop improvement. 4) Transcript and protein validation. A combination of molecular and proteomic solutions will be used to identify the transcripts and proteins from gene models. 5) Evaluation and development of methodologies to utilize newer sequencing technologies to characterize plant genomes.