Maize has tremendous levels of natural diversity that can be used for the improvement of biofuel potential, nitrogen use efficiency, nutritional value, and environmental tolerances. However, to access and to make it available to the tools of genomics, the molecular variation of maize needs to be discovered at a very high resolution. This project will develop methods to discover and then score DNA polymorphisms (variants) using several leading edge technologies. Polymorphisms will be discovered and scored at nearly 400,000 locations in the genome. These polymorphisms will then be scored against 27 diverse lines that capture 80% of the common variation in maize. Importantly, the 27 lines used in this project are also parents of the world's largest ongoing complex trait dissection project. In combination with this unparalleled trait dissection mapping resource, the polymorphisms discovered by this project will enable resolution of complex traits in maize down to the gene level, which will facilitate research in understanding how numerous traits are controlled.
The project will develop a web-based step-by-step guide for mapping suitable for use by undergraduate students.
Access to project outcomes Protocols and array designs will be made available through a project website. All data from this project will be publicly available through Gramene (www.gramene.org) and Panzea (www.panzea.org) and subsequently incorporated into appropriate public databases at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/).
