ADVANCES IN MAIZE GENOMICS: THE EMERGENCE OF POSITIONAL CLONING

Authors: BORTIRI, ESTEBAN - ARS-UCB PLNT GENE EXP CTR; JACKSON, DAVID - COLD SPRING HARBOR LAB NY; Hake, Sarah

Submitted to: Current Opinion in Plant Biology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/2/2006
Publication Date: 4/1/2006
Citation: Bortiri, E., Jackson, D., Hake, S.C. 2006. Advances in maize genomics: the emergence of positional cloning. Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 9(2):164-171.

Interpretive Summary: Positional cloning has been and remains a powerful method for gene identification in Arabidopsis. With the completion of the rice genome sequence, positional cloning in rice also took off, including the cloning of several quantitative trait loci. Positional cloning in cereals such as maize whose genomes are much larger than that of rice was considered near impossible because of the vast amounts of repetitive DNA. However, conservation of synteny across the cereal genomes, in combination with new maize resources, has now made positional cloning in maize feasible. In fact, a chromosomal walk is usually much faster than the more traditional method of gene isolation in maize by transposon tagging.

Technical Abstract: Positional cloning has been and remains a powerful method for gene identification in Arabidopsis. With the completion of the rice genome sequence, positional cloning in rice also took off, including the cloning of several quantitative trait loci. Positional cloning in cereals such as maize whose genomes are much larger than that of rice was considered near impossible because of the vast amounts of repetitive DNA. However, conservation of synteny across the cereal genomes, in combination with new maize resources, has now made positional cloning in maize feasible. In fact, a chromosomal walk is usually much faster than the more traditional method of gene isolation in maize by transposon tagging.