Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

The Spanish Citrus Genomics Consortium. A Progress Report.

Manuel Talon² , Jose Gadea¹ , Javier Forment¹ , Javier Agusti² , Enriqueta Alos² , Gema Ancillo² , Raquel Arribas¹ , Javier Brumos² , Jose A. Carrillo² , Manuel Cercos² , Jose M. Colmenero-Flores² , Ana Conesa² , Monica Gandia² , Jose L. Garcia-Martinez¹ , Jacinta Gimeno¹ , Gustavo Gomez¹ , Antonio Granell¹ , Jose Guerri² , Carmen Hernandez¹ , Laura Huerta¹ , Maria T. Lafuente³ , Javier Martinez² , Maria A. Martinez-Godoy¹ , Luis Navarro² , Vicente Pallas¹ , Miguel A. Perez-Amador¹ , Clara Pons¹ , Carolina Royo¹ , Javier Santiago¹ , Ramon Serrano¹ , Guillermo Soler² , Francisco R. Tadeo² , Javier Terol² , Lorenzo Zacarias³ , Vicente Conejero¹

¹  Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP), Avenida de los Naranjos, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain.

²  Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera Moncada-Náquera, Km.4.5, 46113 Moncada (Valencia), Spain.

³  Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA), Apdo. 73, 46100 Burjasot (Valencia), Spain.

The Spanish Citrus Functional Genomics Project (CFGP) has currently identified and catalogued about 85.000 ESTs representing a set of citrus genes expressed under relevant physiological processes and biological situations for citriculture. Although many ESTs have been isolated from Citrus clementina, the collection also includes genes from Carrizo citrange, Cleopatra mandarin and sweet and sour orange. To analyze the expression patterns and elucidate the potential role of these genes, a first cDNA microarray including 13.000 CFGP clones representing around 7000 UniGenes was constructed. The array contained probes from 15 different cDNA libraries covering a wide range of organs (fruit, root and leaf), developmental stages and environmental conditions, such as biotic and abiotic stresses. In this communication, the usefulness of this array to analyzed gene expression in citrus will be exemplified with the presentation of data and results of several experiments focussed on stress responses (water deficit, salinity, low temperatures during post-harvest), developmental processes (vegetative growth, fruit development) and variety differences.