"Our mapping will help us figure out how chromosomes relate to
the fate of plant cells," Jackson says. "Hopefully this will
reveal how we can regulate gene function and eventually allow us to
build artificial chromosomes."
SanMiguel utilizes high-throughput DNA sequencing to compare genome
structure among grains.
"Our view of grain genomes transformed in the 1990s when we learned
that even genomes drastically different in size, such as rice, maize
and wheat, have a remarkably similar overall structure," SanMiguel
says. "It was like discovering that Lafayette, Indianapolis and
Chicago had basically the same layout; if you knew the street layout
of Lafayette, you could navigate Indianapolis or Chicago reasonably
well.
"This grant lets us use the rice genome as a map for the genomes
of some closely related species."
The information gleaned in Jackson's and SanMiguel's work will add
to scientists' arsenal of methods to control gene function to improve
plant development, nutritional content and plant resistance to pests
and disease. For instance, the ability to control certain genes in soybeans
may enable researchers to improve seed development, oil content and
resistance to pests, such as nematodes, and diseases, such as sudden
death syndrome.
The award to Jackson and SanMiguel is one of 23 grants totaling $75.6
million the NSF Plant Genome Research Program made this year. Jackson,
who joined the Purdue faculty in fall 2001, and SanMiguel, who came
to Purdue in 1998, received one of eight awards in the inaugural Young
Investigator in Plant Genome Research division. Those awards totaled
$9.5 million.
Contact Scott Jackson at sjackson@purdue.edu
or Phillip SanMiguel at pmiguel@purdue.edu
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