PolITiGenomics » corn

Striking at the root

dd — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:12:36 +0000

If you are at all interested in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, the presentation below by Lawrence Lessig is well worth the 18 minutes.

Corn genome sequenced published

dd — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:20:09 +0000

Chalk another one up for the corn lobby (damn those Iowa caucuses!), the maize genome has been published. More seriously, this maize genome reference sequence, much like the human genome reference sequence, provides a foundation for truly revolutionary research into the relationship between genotypes and specific traits and, since genetic engineering is slightly more acceptable in corn than humans, developing strains of corn that can thrive in, for example, warmer, drier climates. The Genome Center led the sequencing effort and collaborated with several institutions on the analysis, resulting in 13 companion papers published in Science and PLoS Genetics. The sequencing was quite a challenge because of the highly repetitive nature of corn’s tetraploid (there are four copies of each chromosome as compared to the diploid (two copies) human genome) genome. There is a lot of coverage in the popular press, including Scientific American, Popular Science, and, of course, Farm and Dairy.

More corn

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:07:00 +0000

The draft sequenced of the maize genome was officially announced today. Here is some other coverage.

Your people call it corn

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:18:00 +0000

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.