Collaborative Research: An Arabidopsis Polymorphism Database

本项目将通过整合拟南芥基因组序列以及拟南芥和风疹芥两个近缘种的基因组序列，建立拟南芥基因组资源。这些数据将使解答拟南芥进化的基本问题成为可能，并将促进对现有基因组序列的解释。这类似于通过将大量人类多态性数据与黑猩猩和猩猩等密切相关的灵长类动物的基因组序列相结合来理解人类变异和进化的类似努力。这个项目将为理解遗传变异提供一个工具。了解基因型变异如何转化为表型变异以及它在种群中的结构是我们理解进化的基础，并且对人类健康以及动植物育种具有巨大的实际意义。该项目还将为不同水平的多名学生提供生物信息学和计算生物学的培训机会，这些领域是全国公认的缺乏必要定量技能的生物学学生的领域。

Abstract This project will to generate a community resource for Arabidopsis genetics by integrating several new data sets with the existing A. thaliana genome sequence and those of two closely related species, A. lyrata and Capsella rubella. These data will make it possible to answer fundamental questions about the evolution of A. thaliana, and will facilitate the interpretation of the existing genome sequence. It is analogous to similar efforts to understand human variation and evolution by integrating vast amounts of human polymorphism data with genome sequences from closely related primates like chimpanzee and orangutan. This project will provide a tool for making sense of genetic variation. Understanding how genotypic variation translates into phenotypic variation and how it is structured in populations is fundamental to our understanding of evolution, and has enormous practical implications for human health as well as for plant and animal breeding. The project will also provide training opportunities in bioinformatics and computational biology for multiple students at different levels, areas where there is a nationally recognized shortage of biology students with the requisite quantitative skills.