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Title: BIOINFORMATICS AND TRITICEAE GENOMICS: RESOURCES AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

Author
item Matthews, David
item Lazo, Gerard
item Blake, Victoria
item Anderson, Olin

Submitted to: Cereal Genomics
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/30/2004
Publication Date: 7/9/2004
Citation: Matthews, D.E., Lazo, G.R., Carollo, V.L., Anderson, O.D. 2004. Bioinformatics and Triticeae Genomics: Resources and Future Developments. In: Gupta, P.K. and Varshney, R.K. (Eds.) Cereal Genomics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. p. 425-446.

Interpretive Summary: In the last few years hundreds of thousands of short DNA fragments from the chromosomes and isolated genes of wheat and barley have been sequenced. Using a combination of laboratory and computational methods these sequences have been pieced together to produce a sketchy picture of the entire genomes of these two crops, and to provide tools that can be exploited immediately for developing new improved cultivars by conventional plant breeding as well as by genetic engineering. Much remains to be done, as less than 0.1% of either the wheat or barley genome has been sequenced to date.

Technical Abstract: Genomics is an increasingly important area of research for the future of the Triticeae crops. The status of Triticeae genomics is evaluated, highlighting the role of bioinformatics, and summarizing current and planned information resources to support this research. Among the developments in Triticeae genome research have been the sequencing of a large number of wheat and barley ESTs, a map of thousands of markers relative to wheat chromosome deletion breakpoints, construction of a physical map of one of the wheat genomes by BAC fingerprinting, and increasing numbers of full-length genetic maps as well as targeted map studies for QTLs (quantitative trait loci), map-based cloning and marker-assisted selection. Availability of the ESTs is making it possible to mine for SSRs (simple sequence repeats) and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) for mapping and genotyping studies, and to assemble good unigene sets for gene expression experiments. Initial efforts in genomic sequencing include increasing numbers of full-length BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) sequences of 100-300 kb.