PI: Donald McCarty, University of Florida CoPI: Karen Koch, University of Florida Collaborators: Rob Martienssen, W. Richard McCombie, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Collaborator: Carolyn Lawrence, Iowa State University
Maize is a key model organism for plant biology and genetics research in addition to being among the world''''s economically most important crops. The complete sequencing of the maize genome currently in progress will enable researchers to identify the complete set of genes required to make a maize plant. In order to understand the functions and interactions of those genes, researchers will require methods for systematically generating genetic mutations that disrupt each gene. For this purpose, large populations of maize plants containing active Mutator transposons have been created to saturate the genome with insertional mutations. To enable diverse maize researcher's world-wide to easily identify and obtain mutations in genes of interest, a DNA sequence based index of the location of each insertion site in the genome will be created for the UniformMu inbred maize population. The sequence index database is expected to contain annotations of up to 100,000 unique transposon insertion sites in a collection of 8050 maize lines.
The broader impacts of the project will include providing rich research experiences in bioinformatics, state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technologies, maize genetics and transposon biology to diverse undergraduates.
A public interface to the resource will be provided through the MaizeGDB.org web portal. These will enable individual researchers to identify mutations of interest and obtain seed of mutant stocks from the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center.
Genetics researchers use mutations to understand the functions of specific genes that are important in crop plants such as maize. Mutations enable scientists to ask the fundamental question of what changes in the plant or grain if we delete or disable a particular gene? By generating mutations throughout the maize genome, this project enables systematic analysis of the nearly 40,000 genes that contribute to formation of a corn plant. To achieve this goal, the project developed a collection of 8,256 maize genetic stocks that each contain transposon insertions at different locations in their genomes. Together this collection of plant includes mutations in a large fraction of all maize genes. To identify these mutations and determine the precise locations in the maize genome we developed new methods for mapping DNA insertions based on highly efficient DNA sequencing technologies. The complete list of transposon induced mutations identified in the collection of genetic stocks can be searched online at MaizeGDB.org. Seeds of genetic stocks that contain mutations of interest can then be requested free of charge from the Maize Cooperation Genetic Stock Center using an online form. The resulting public resource includes over 42,000 unique transposon insertions mapped in 8,256 sustainable genetic stocks. Already, diverse scientists working in laboratories world-wide have utilized this resource to improve our understanding of hundreds of genes in the maize genome.
