Molecular and Functional Diversity in the Maize Genome

2001年，玉米成为世界第一大生产作物，目前美国玉米产量几乎是小麦和水稻产量总和的四倍。 玉米（或玉米）也是单一的最多样化的作物物种，在形态和生理性状上包含巨大的变化，并且在其DNA序列中具有广泛的多态性。这种特殊的多样性使玉米可以在一系列环境中种植，包括非洲部分地区、亚马逊雨林、亚利桑那沙漠、加拿大的加斯佩半岛和海拔3500米以上的安第斯山脉。 现代生物学家面临的挑战是描述控制玉米不同表型和适应性的基因，识别这些基因的有用变体（等位基因），并建立一个高通量，高分辨率的平台，用于发现和评估整个基因组和基因库的等位基因变异。 该项目将应对这些挑战。 首先，该项目将在不同的玉米自交系和大刍草系中进行1000个基因的标记发现，以确定一组无偏见的标记用于分子多样性分析。 其次，该项目将分析不同类型玉米和野生玉米（大刍草）中4,000个基因的序列。 这些数据将提供对玉米基因组中分子变异的数量和分布的直接测量，并能够识别过去10，000年来人类选择的基因，以使玉米适应不同的环境并改善玉米的农艺性能。 第三，该项目将包括750个基因的功能测定，以确定它们控制哪些性状，以及这些基因在哪些等位基因上赋予最佳农艺品质。 这项工作将产生两个主要资源：（1）整个基因组中经过验证的分子多态性的大型数据库，以及（2）一组可用于几乎任何性状的基因定位的玉米和大刍草品系。 这些结果和产品将通过公共保藏机构，如玉米遗传合作储备中心（http：//www.ag.uiuc.edu/maize-coop）、中北部地区植物引种站（http：//www.ars-grin.gov/ars/MidWest/Ames/）、Gramene（http：//www.example.com）和Genbank（http：//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/），提供给广大研究人员。www.gramene.org此外，该项目将通过推广计划使这项研究能够为广大人民所接受。 该项目将侧重于通过辅导方案向农村学校的学生传递玉米科学和知识的兴奋，重点是扩大参与。

In 2001, maize became the number one production crop in the world, and current US maize production is almost four times wheat and rice production combined. Maize (or corn) is also the single most diverse crop species, containing tremendous variation in morphological and physiological traits and extensive polymorphism in its DNA sequences. This exceptional diversity allows maize to be cultivated in a range of environments including parts of Africa, the Amazonian rainforest, Arizona deserts, the Gaspe peninsula in Canada, and the Andes Mountains at heights above 3500 m elevation. The challenges for modern biologists are to describe the genes that control the diverse phenotypes and adaptation of maize, to identify the useful variants (alleles) at these genes, and to establish a high-throughput, high-resolution platform for finding and evaluating allelic variation throughout the genome and the breadth of the gene pool. This project will meet these challenges. First, the project will perform marker discovery for 1000 genes in diverse maize inbred and teosinte lines to identify an unbiased set of markers for molecular diversity analysis. Second, the project will analyze the sequences of 4,000 genes in diverse types of maize and wild maize (teosinte). This data will provide a direct measure of the amount and distribution of molecular variation in the maize genome and enable the identification of genes that have been selected by humans over the past 10,000 years to adapt maize to diverse environments and to improve the agronomic performance of maize. Third, the project will include functional assays of 750 genes in order to determine which traits they control and at which alleles these genes confer the best agronomic qualities. This work will produce two major resources: (1) a large database of validated molecular polymorphisms throughout the genome, and (2) a set of maize and teosinte lines that can be used for gene mapping for almost any trait. These results and products will be made available to a wide range of researchers through public depositories such as the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center (http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/maize-coop), North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/MidWest/Ames/), Gramene (http://www.gramene.org) and Genbank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/). Additionally, the project will make this research accessible to a wide range of people through outreach programs. The project will focus on transmitting the excitement of science and knowledge of maize to students in rural schools and through mentoring programs, with an emphasis on broadening participation.