Our dearth of knowledge about quantitative variation is readily apparent in our still poor understanding of the majority of multigenic diseases affecting humans. While the past decade has seen dramatic progress in the development of computational approaches to study complex traits, a molecular understanding of the basis of natural variation has remained elusive. Systems in which QTL genes are known offer exciting opportunities to determine the types of molecular changes that lead to variation in populations. The proposed work will characterize a known QTL gene, teosinte branched-i (tbi). Differences in the regulation of the tbi gene account for much of the variation in morphology between domesticated maize and its wild ancestor, teosinte. Detailed expression studies will be used to correlate differences in tbi transcription with developmental outcomes, and sequence diversity studies will be used to identify selected regions of the tbi locus responsible for derived maize morphology. Finally, tbi genic regions that underlie differences in maize-teosinte morphology will be functionally localized in a 10,000 plant cross and characterized. Understanding how the tbi QTL gene contributes to quantitative variation will be of broad interest to researchers examining complex traits in many organisms including humans.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32GM065008-02
Application #
6622305
Study Section
Biological Sciences 2 (BIOL)
Program Officer
Tompkins, Laurie
Project Start
2002-02-01
Project End
Budget Start
2003-02-01
Budget End
2004-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$46,420
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Genetics
Type
Schools of Earth Sciences/Natur
DUNS #
161202122
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715
Clark, Richard M; Wagler, Tina Nussbaum; Quijada, Pablo et al. (2006) A distant upstream enhancer at the maize domestication gene tb1 has pleiotropic effects on plant and inflorescent architecture. Nat Genet 38:594-7
Clark, Richard M; Tavare, Simon; Doebley, John (2005) Estimating a nucleotide substitution rate for maize from polymorphism at a major domestication locus. Mol Biol Evol 22:2304-12
Clark, Richard M; Linton, Eric; Messing, Joachim et al. (2004) Pattern of diversity in the genomic region near the maize domestication gene tb1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101:700-7