Your people call it corn
February 26th, 2008
Later this week, we will announce the completion of the maize genome draft sequence (for the more aural-oriented crowd, an radio story featuring Rick Wilson should be posted here soon). Maize has a large genome (slightly smaller than human) that is highly repetitive (about 80%). These facts made a whole-genome shotgun approach to sequencing infeasible. Therefore, we took a BAC-by-BAC approach, similar to what was done for the Human Genome Project. Further work on the maize genome will focus on the parts of the genome that have genes, or genic regions, thereby avoiding the highly-repetitive regions of the genome. We will work on improving these genic regions, filling in gaps and resolving discrepancies, resulting in a more complete and accurate sequence. The Genome Center was the lead center in this sequencing effort and we will continue to lead the effort to further improve the genic regions of the genome (even though the maize genome is slightly smaller than human, it is thought to have about twice as many genes).
Reading the AP article, it seems Monsanto is trying to take some credit for this effort.
[Monstanto CTO Robert] Fraley said Monsanto contributed gene-mapping technology and some of its own gene maps to the effort.
While they may have influenced the decision by NSF, USDA, and DOE to fund the project, they did not contribute any sequencing or analysis to the project. I am not sure what Mr. Fraley means by “gene-mapping technology”, but we did not use their gene maps. Although they have undoubtedly downloaded all the sequence the project has generated, they will only release the genomic information they possess if you sign a licensing agreement with them.
Posted in genomics | 4 Comments »
Tagged with: corn, genomics, health, science, wustl
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February 26th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
1) “Contributed” doesn’t mean that you used the contributions.
2) I think he’s talking about earlier mapping anyway, not your sequencing.
3) Anyway, Eric Lander did exactly the same thing to Celera after the human sequencing.
Congratulations, though!
February 26th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Anyway, Eric Lander did exactly the same thing to Celera after the human sequencing.
I think you have that backwards. Celera took the sequence generated by the Human Genome Project and combined it with the sequence they generated. Celera did not release their data for public use until later.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Is it possible that the corn you used for the sequencing was grown next to a field of monsanto GE corn? Because if so then monsanto owned the corn, and it’s genes, and now your work. It’s true, their lawyers will prove it.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Is it possible that the corn you used for the sequencing was grown next to a field of monsanto GE corn?
No, we sequenced a specific cultivar, Zea mays mays cv. B73, used in research.