? Caenorhabditis briggsae is a key emerging model organism. Comparative genomic and genetic studies of C. briggsae with its related model organism C. elegans promise powerful new tools for the identification of eukaryotic gene products and pathways and the study of the conservation/divergence of these, because the organism are phenotypically nearly identical but their last common ancestor lived about 100 million years ago. C. briggsae investigators agree the key required experimental tool for the organism is a good genetic map tied to the draft sequence. The map is needed to facilitate forward genetics including mapping mutants useful to investigators in the field as a prelude to positional cloning of the mutants. We will provide this tool, constructing a dense genetic map of C. briggsae by genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on two sets of recombinant inbred strains. The map will anchor and orient contigs from the draft sequence, making the sequence more useful. We will assemble collections of mutant animals and genetically map the location of the mutations with high throughput methods using bulked segregants. We will use similar techniques to map many mutants found by investigators in the field, and we will make the data and mutants publicly available. The tools provided by this proposal will enable a powerful new style of science using what will be two Caenorhabditis model organisms. ? ? ?
| Ross, Joseph A; Koboldt, Daniel C; Staisch, Julia E et al. (2011) Caenorhabditis briggsae recombinant inbred line genotypes reveal inter-strain incompatibility and the evolution of recombination. PLoS Genet 7:e1002174 |
| Koboldt, Daniel C; Staisch, Julia; Thillainathan, Bavithra et al. (2010) A toolkit for rapid gene mapping in the nematode Caenorhabditis briggsae. BMC Genomics 11:236 |
| Hillier, LaDeana W; Miller, Raymond D; Baird, Scott E et al. (2007) Comparison of C. elegans and C. briggsae genome sequences reveals extensive conservation of chromosome organization and synteny. PLoS Biol 5:e167 |
