This NSF-funded
project uses comparative genomics to investigate the
process of genome restructuring following polyploidization in plants,
particularly in the important crop plant soybean and its
relatives in the Glycine genus. We will determine the corresponding approximately 1
megabasepair intervals from each of six legume taxa, as well as the
duplicated regions in the polyploid members (12 intervals in total).
The genomic interval to be sequenced contains several commercially important disease resistance
(R) genes in soybean, and contains both rapidly rearranging
and relatively stable chromosomal blocks. These analyses will address
fundamental questions regarding genome evolution on both short
(<100,000 years) and long (>50 million years) time scales, as
well as questions regarding the evolution of R genes. This
sequence collection will also facilitate identification of conserved
promoter elements and non-coding RNAs. All sequence data, physical
maps, and analyses will be made publicly available through this
web-site.
More about the project here.
This project is funded by the
NSF Plant Genome Research Program,
and involves a close collaboration among five research labs:
Our project is linked to the educational and non-science community via direct
collaborations with two hands-on science museums, by high school outreach programs, and through
hands-on activity kits being developed for public events at science museums and in K-12 classrooms.
More about educational features of the project here.
