Construction of Comprehensive Sequence Indexed Transposon Resources for Maize

PI: Donald McCarty，佛罗里达大学PI: Karen Koch，佛罗里达大学合作者：Rob Martienssen， W. Richard McCombie，冷泉港实验室合作者：Carolyn Lawrence，爱荷华州立大学玉米除了是世界上‘’‘’经济上最重要的作物之一外，还是植物生物学和遗传学研究的关键模式生物。目前正在进行的玉米基因组的完整测序将使研究人员能够确定制造玉米植株所需的全套基因。为了了解这些基因的功能和相互作用，研究人员将需要系统地产生破坏每个基因的基因突变的方法。为此，大量含有活性Mutator转座子的玉米植物群体被创造出来，以使插入突变使基因组饱和。为了使世界各地的玉米研究人员能够轻松地识别和获得感兴趣的基因突变，将为UniformMu自交系玉米群体创建一个基于基因组中每个插入位点位置的DNA序列索引。该序列索引数据库预计将包含8050个玉米系中多达10万个独特转座子插入位点的注释。该项目的广泛影响将包括为不同的本科生提供丰富的生物信息学、最先进的DNA测序技术、玉米遗传学和转座子生物学方面的研究经验。该资源的公共接口将通过MaizeGDB.org web门户提供。这将使个别研究人员能够识别感兴趣的突变，并从玉米遗传合作库存中心获得突变库存的种子。

PI: Donald McCarty, University of FloridaCoPI: Karen Koch, University of FloridaCollaborators: Rob Martienssen, W. Richard McCombie, Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoriesCollaborator: Carolyn Lawrence, Iowa State UniversityMaize is a key model organism for plant biology and genetics research in addition to being among the world''''s economically most important crops. The complete sequencing of the maize genome currently in progress will enable researchers to identify the complete set of genes required to make a maize plant. In order to understand the functions and interactions of those genes, researchers will require methods for systematically generating genetic mutations that disrupt each gene. For this purpose, large populations of maize plants containing active Mutator transposons have been created to saturate the genome with insertional mutations. To enable diverse maize researcher's world-wide to easily identify and obtain mutations in genes of interest, a DNA sequence based index of the location of each insertion site in the genome will be created for the UniformMu inbred maize population. The sequence index database is expected to contain annotations of up to 100,000 unique transposon insertion sites in a collection of 8050 maize lines. The broader impacts of the project will include providing rich research experiences in bioinformatics, state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technologies, maize genetics and transposon biology to diverse undergraduates. A public interface to the resource will be provided through the MaizeGDB.org web portal. These will enable individual researchers to identify mutations of interest and obtain seed of mutant stocks from the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center.