EAGER: Estimating the prevalence of polyploidy in the phaseoloid legumes

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。多倍体（Polyploidy）是植物最重要的遗传现象之一。多倍体植物一经形成，就可以通过数染色体来识别，因为多倍体的染色体数量是二倍体的两倍。然而，经过数百万年的“二倍体化”过程，多倍体的染色体数量可能与二倍体一样低。基因组研究可以检测到这种隐性多倍体，高通量测序的出现使得这种方法越来越可行。利用这项新技术，该项目将通过对大约25个系统发育不同物种的数千个转录基因进行测序，估计豆科植物多倍体的频率。豆科植物包括大豆、普通豆、豇豆、鸽子豆和其他不太熟悉的作物。多倍体事件将通过其特征特征来识别，即同时复制两个副本的过量基因。鉴于多倍体作为一种遗传现象的重要性，该项目对遗传学和系统学具有广泛意义，对农业也具有广泛意义，因为多倍体在作物植物（如大豆、小麦、玉米、棉花）中非常普遍。大量的基因将为这一庞大而重要的谱系的后续研究提供资源。一名优秀的女性博士后将接受下一代测序数据生成和分析方面的培训。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Polyploidy (whole genome duplication) is one of the most important genetic phenomena in plants. Immediately after its formation, a polyploid plant can be identified simply by counting its chromosomes, because it has twice as many as a diploid. However, after millions of years a polyploid may have as low a chromosome number as a diploid through a process called "diploidization." Genomic studies can detect such cryptic polyploids, and the advent of high-throughput sequencing has made this approach increasingly feasible. Using this new technology, this project will estimate the frequency of polyploidy in the phaseoloid legumes, a group that includes soybean, common bean, cowpea, pigeonpea, and other less familiar crops, by sequencing thousands of transcribed genes from approximately 25 phylogenetically diverse species. Polyploid events will be identified by their characteristic signature, an excess of genes with two copies duplicated at the same time. The project has broad significance for genetics and systematics, given the importance of polyploidy as a genetic phenomenon, and also for agriculture, because polyploidy is so common among crop plants (e.g., soybean, wheat, maize, cotton). The large numbers of genes will be a resource for subsequent studies in this large and important lineage. A talented female postdoctoral associate will receive training in the generation and analysis of next-generation sequencing data.