Analytical Tools for Studies of the Genomics of Isolation between Plant Taxa

由于基因对植物性状的影响以及它们与外来遗传背景的相互作用，它们在杂交植物物种间的迁移受到限制。该项目将产生统计工具和软件，用于揭示植物分类群之间分离的遗传基础，并将这些工具应用于具有经济意义的植物。向日葵和杨树的杂交将作为方法和软件的测试。这些工具在向日葵上的应用将导致农作物和野生向日葵之间分离的遗传和表型成分的鉴定。例如，与驯化植物的性状密切相关的基因（例如，失去种子休眠）预计会以相对于与驯化性状不密切相关的基因的较低速度进入野生向日葵的基因库。在白杨（杨树）种间常见杂交的情况下，这些工具将确定有助于在多对物种中隔离的基因组区域以及物种相遇和杂交的地理位置。杂交有可能继续在杨树品种的产生和改良中发挥重要作用。了解基因组的哪些部分容易跨越物种边界，从栽培品种到野生近缘品种，将是未来育种工作中重要的考虑因素。目前研究这些分类群的研究小组将通过提供用户反馈和多样化的数据集来合作开发。在开发这些研究工具的过程中，一些研究生和博士后将接受计算生物学方面的重要培训。人员的大量交流将促进开发人员和用户之间的思想交流。最终的软件是用R语言编写的，将广泛传播给从事杂交类群研究的植物生物学家使用（可从http://www.uwyo.edu/buerkle/software获得），并存档在全球网络上（CRAN http://cran.us.r-project.org）。发布和更新将通过邮件列表发布。

Genes are limited in their tendency to move between hybridizing plant species by their effects on plant traits and their interaction with a foreign genetic background. This project will result in statistical tools and software for uncovering the genetic basis of isolation between plant taxa and in the application of these tools to plants of economic importance. Hybridization in sunflowers and cottonwoods (Populus) will serve as tests of the methods and software. The application of these tools to sunflowers will result in the identification of genetic and phenotypic components of isolation between crop plants and wild sunflowers. For example, genes that are closely associated with traits of domesticated plants (e.g., loss of seed dormancy) are expected to move into the gene pool of wild sunflowers at a reduced rate relative to genes that are not closely associated with domestication traits. In the case of the common hybridization between species of cottonwoods (Populus), these tools will identify genomic regions that contribute to isolation in multiple pairs of species and among geographic locations at which species meet and hybridize. Hybridization is likely to continue to play a significant role in the generation and improvement of Populus cultivars. An understanding of which portions of the genome move easily across species boundaries, and from cultivars to wild relatives, will be an important consideration in future breeding efforts. Research groups currently studying these taxa will cooperate in the development by providing user feedback and diverse datasets. In the process of developing these research tools, several graduate and postdoctoral students will receive significant training in computational biology. The sharing of ideas between developers and users will be facilitated by significant exchanges of personnel. The resulting software, written in R, will be broadly disseminated for use by plant biologists who work with hybridizing taxa (available from http://www.uwyo.edu/buerkle/software), and archived on a global network (CRAN http://cran.us.r-project.org). Release and updates will be announced through an R a mailing list.