Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Poster: Genome Sequencing & ESTs
            

BRASSICA GENE DISCOVERY AND MOLECULAR MARKER DEVELOPMENT: AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE.

¹ (a) Agriculture Victoria, Plant Biotechnology Centre, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia. (b) Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium, Plant Biotechnology Centre, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia

² Agriculture Victoria, Plant Biotechnology Centre, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Australia

³ School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia

⁴ Institute of Land and Food Resources, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia

⁵ Agriculture Victoria, Victorian Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Horsham, Victoria 3401, Australia

Canola is an important crop in Australia where it is grown predominantly for the export market. A key objective of the National Brassica Improvement Program is to develop lines suited to Australian agriculture, with emphasis on limiting yield reduction caused by both biotic and abiotic stress. Within Agriculture Victoria and in association with the University of Melbourne, we have initiated a Brassica gene discovery program with the aim of identifying over 20 000 Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) by the end of 2002. The initial focus of this program is to examine the interaction of the pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans (blackleg) with both resistant and susceptible Brassica varieties. Following EST production, sequences will be mined for both simple sequence repeat (SSR) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) molecular markers. Informative markers can then be used to co-localise candidate resistance genes with quantitative trait loci for disease resistance. Disease associated markers may then be employed in marker assisted breeding strategies in the development of improved Australian canola varieties.