The National Plant Genome Initiative: Objectives for 2003-2008

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The National Plant Genome Initiative was launched in FY1998 as a long-term project to explore the structure and function of plant genomes. Its goals are to ensure that useful properties of plants can be understood, improved, and ultimately harnessed to address national needs, including agriculture, nutrition, energy, environment, and health. A five-year plan was developed to guide the program during its inauguration.The program has made significant progress to date, and the NPGI must begin to develop objectives for its next phase. To provide input to this planning process, the National Research Council will form a study group consisting of experts in genomics, plant biology, informatics, and other relevant fields of science. The study group will organize a 3 day workshop to: (1) identify key scientific questions that might be answered in the next five years; (2) consider the relative priorities of additional sequencing, functional genomics and proteomics within the initiative; (3) examine the potential to use bioinformatics and biological tools that are available or emerging, and; (4) describe the tools, infrastructure, and human resources that are needed to successfully address key scientific questions identified by the workshop participants.Following the workshop, the study group will write a report summarizing its assessment of the key scientific directions and recommending priorities for the plant genome initiative for the next five years. The report will be published and made available on the web. The report will be delivered by the end of August 2002.