Comparative cDNA Sequencing in Radish (Raphanus), a Crop, Weed, and Model System in Ecology and Evolution

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There are two species in the plant genus Raphanus: R. sativus is the edible radish and R. raphanistrum is the wild species. The wild species is important because it is the likely ancestor of the crop, it is an increasingly serious crop weed worldwide, and because hybrids between the wild and crop radish have become an invasive species of natural land in California. Radish is also a model system in ecology and evolution, especially for studies of plant-animal interactions and natural selection. Despite its importance as a crop, weed, and study species, almost no gene sequence data is available for radish, severely limiting future progress in understanding the biology of radish. This project will produce sequences of thousands of genes from both the crop and wild radish species and generate hundreds of genetic markers. These sequences and markers will enable the next generation of discoveries, including the genetic basis of: crop domestication, weed and invasive species evolution, adaptation to pollinators, herbivores, and global change. Comparisons of the gene sequences generated to existing sequences from other species in the same family (the crop genus Brassica and the model plant Arabidopsis) will advance our understanding of how gene sequences evolve. Access to project outcomesThe sequences, markers, and clones produced will be made freely available to the broader research community via GenBank, the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/pcmb/Facilities/abrc/abrchome.htm), Plant Genome Database (PlantGDB: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/pcmb/Facilities/abrc/abrchome.htm), the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR: http://www.arabidopsis.org/) and websites at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR: http://www.tigr.org/) and Michigan State University (MSU: http://www.kbs.msu.edu/Faculty/Conner/Index.htm). The MSU website will feature collaborative content creation (wiki) to facilitate the exchange of ideas and data among the worldwide radish research community.