Microarray Resources for Maize Research

玉米是美国经济上最重要的作物，也是解决单子体基本生物学问题的首要生物，尤其是占人类饮食70%的谷物。强大的科学界结合广泛的遗传和基因组工具，使玉米成为一个优秀的实验系统。该项目将为重要作物植物玉米（Zea mays L.）的表达分析提供低成本、全面的公共部门微阵列资源。目标是：1)根据用户需要继续生产玉米cDNA扩增子阵列。2)用70个片段的寡核苷酸序列代表3万个可识别的独特玉米基因，相对于cDNA序列，它可以更好地区分基因重复（在玉米中常见）。使用最小成本回收模型为社区提供阵列和杂交服务。3)提供一个网站来传播项目信息，并在项目特定的关系数据库Zeamage中提供该项目产生的所有表达数据，用于Zea mays基因表达数据库，并链接到水稻和玉米基因组注释。4)对玉米组织子集进行表达谱分析，为社区提供数据基线和详细方案。5)利用灵活的Nimblegen系统，实验改进下一代70-mer阵列的寡核苷酸设计，以更好地区分基因家族成员和基因重复。该项目提供的低成本阵列和杂交服务将使更多的研究人员能够将全球基因表达谱应用于其特定的玉米应用或基础研究项目。重要的是，由于所有的数据都可以在公共数据库中快速获取，那些没有资源进行实验的机构的研究人员也可以访问这些数据。除了培训博士后助理和本科生外，还将开展几项外展活动，以培训广泛的研究人员了解最新的表达谱分析技术。这些活动包括每两年举办一次为期三天的微阵列实践研讨会，在年度会议上举办半天的研讨会，在我们的设施接待来访的科学家，以及开发一个互动网站和其他机制，以便与最终用户进行沟通。可从http://www.tigr.org:1获取)玉米cDNA扩增子阵列。2)至少3万个玉米独特基因的寡核苷酸阵列。3)杂交服务。4) Zeamage数据库，包含玉米组织子集的表达谱，详细的协议，链接到水稻和玉米基因组注释。

Maize is the most economically important crop in the US and the premier organism for addressing fundamental biological questions in monocots, especially the cereals, which contribute 70% of humanity's diet. The robust scientific community combined with the extensive genetic and genomic tools available and accumulating, make maize an excellent experimental system. This project will provide a low cost, comprehensive, public sector microarray resource for expression analysis in the important crop plant maize (Zea mays L.). Objectives are: 1) Continue producing maize cDNA amplicon arrays as needed by users.2) Produce an array with 70-mer oligonucleotides representing the 30,000 identifiable unique maize genes, which should allow better discrimination among gene duplicates (common in maize) relative to cDNA arrays. Provide community with arrays and a hybridization service using a minimal cost recovery model. 3) Provide a website to disseminate project information and provide all expression data generated by this project within a project-specific relational database Zeamage, for Zea mays Gene Expression Database, with links to rice and maize genome annotation. 4) Perform expression profiling with a subset of maize tissues to provide a baseline of data and detailed protocols for the community. 5) Utilize flexible Nimblegen system to experimentally refine oligonucleotide design for the next generation of 70-mer arrays to achieve better discrimination among gene family members and gene duplications. The availability of low cost arrays and hybridization services provided by this project will enable a much larger number of investigators to apply global gene expression profiling to their specific applied or fundamental research programs on maize. Importantly, as ALL the data will be quickly available within a public database, investigators at institutions that do not have the resources to perform the experiments themselves will have access to the data. In addition to training postdoctoral associates and undergraduate students, several outreach components to train a broad community of researchers to the latest in expression profiling technology will be carried out. These activities include holding biannual three-day hands-on microarray workshops, holding half-day workshops at annual meetings, hosting visiting scientists at our facilities, and developing a interactive website and other mechanisms for communication with end-users. DeliverablesAccessible from http://www.tigr.org:1) Maize cDNA amplicon arrays. 2) Oligonucleotide arrays for at least 30,000 unique maize genes.3) A hybridization service.4) Zeamage database containing expression profiles for a subset of maize tissues, detailed protocols, with links to rice and maize genome annotation.