Genome Relationships The Grass Model in Current Research.pdf

The Plant Cell, Vol. 12, 637–646, May 2000, ? 2000 American Society of Plant Physiologists GENOMICS ARTICLE Genome Relationships: The Grass Model in Current Research Katrien M. Devos 1 and Mike D. Gale John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom INTRODUCTION Ten years ago, with the advent of comparative mapping, a new tool became available to plant geneticists. Comparative genome analyses demonstrated that gene orders among re- lated plant species remained largely conserved over millions of years of evolution. This finding has revolutionized our thinking and formed the basis of a new science—compara- tive genomics. Since the first comparative mapping experi- ments, studies of genome relationships have included an ever wider range of plant species, and the focus has shifted from comparisons at the gross map level to studies of gene organization in small chromosomal regions and finally to the DNA sequence itself. To date, the most comprehensive data set comes from the grasses. The Poaceae family includes the staple cereals rice, maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, and the millets. For most of the past century, research has proceeded on each of these species individually. Mutants were produced, ge- netic maps were generated, and biochemical pathways were unraveled. Comparative genomics has provided the basis and stimulus to integrate this knowledge for applica- tion to all cereal crops. The realization of the power of a comparative approach has led to several plant genome initiatives and has pro- moted rice as a model for cereal crops. The rice genome, with only 400 million DNA base pairs (Mb), is the smallest among the major cereal crops and only approximately four times larger than that of the eudicot model plant Arabidop- sis. Dense genetic maps, carrying some 2500 markers, have been constructed, and physical maps cover most of the ge- nome. Additionally, large public collections of expressed se- quence tags (ESTs)