The main objective of this project is to develop tools and resources that will enable the community of Arabidopsis geneticists to carry out population surveys for marker-trait associations - linkage disequilibrium mapping. The basic idea is simple: rather than mapping genes by studying crosses, one types a large number of unrelated individuals (1,152 in the present case) with respect to a large number of variable marker loci (6,144 in the present case) distributed across the genome, in order to identify chromosomal regions that appear to be shared by individuals that are phenotypically similar (in the sense of being resistant to a particular pathogen, for example). This approach potentially leads to much faster gene identification than traditional methods, but has only become practicable as a result of advances in technology for studying genetic variation.
The project is part of the effort to understand the genetic basis for phenotypic variation - arguably the greatest challenge facing modern biology, and central to genetic epidemiology (e.g., why some people are more susceptible to asthma), plant and animal breeding (e.g., why some strains of rice more tolerant to drought), as well as basic evolutionary biology (e.g., the kinds of genetic changes underlie adaptation to a novel habitat). While the project is directed toward the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the methods that will be developed are broadly applicable (including to humans). Furthermore, Arabidopsis is a model for plant biology, and is often used to study agriculturally important traits indirectly.
