Plant & Animal Genomes XIV Conference

January 14-18, 2006
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Comparative EST Sequencing Of Seventeen Compositae Species

María José Truco¹ , Dean O Lavelle¹ , Leah K McHale¹ , Jason M Argyris¹ , David G Caldwell¹ , Marta Matvienko¹ , Alex Kozik¹ , Oswaldo E Ochoa¹ , Smitha Mathrakott¹ , Kent J Bradford¹ , Loren Rieseberg³ , Steve J Knapp⁴ , Rick Kesseli² , David W Still⁵ , Richard W Michelmore¹

¹  Genome Center, University of California, One Shields Ave, Davis, California, 95616, U.S.A

²  Department of Botany, University of Massachussetts-Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, Massachussetts, 02125, U.S.A

³  Department of Biology, Indiana University, 1001 East Third Street, Bloominton, Indiana, 47405, U.S.A

⁴  CAGT, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602, U.S.A

⁵  Department of Horticulture/Plant and Soil science, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, 3801 West Temple Ave., Pomona, California, 91768, U.S.A.

The Compositae Genome Project part I (CGP; http://compgenomics.ucdavis.edu) generated a set of ESTs for lettuce and sunflower representing approximately 19,000 and 18,000 unigenes respectively. Mining these sequences for candidate genes of important agricultural traits and disease resistance genes in lettuce has resulted in the mapping of over 500 EST sequences in our core mapping population (Lactuca sativa cv. Salinas x L. serriola, RIL _7:8). We have also measured this population’s phenotypic variability for a variety of traits. In order to easily curate and query all the genetic data, we have developed a comprehensive Compositae database (http://cgpdb.ucdavis.edu/). The Compositae Genome Project part II aims to expand comparative genomic studies by increasing the number of ESTs by sequencing from 17 species within the Compositae. The expanded set of species (L. sativa, L. serriola, L. saligna, L. virosa, L. perennis) in the Lactucae along with 12 other species within the genus Helianthus, Chicorium, Carthamnus, Centaurea, and Taraxacum will yield over 500,000 EST sequences for comparative studies in the Compositae with an emphasis on genes involved in domestication and weediness. In parallel, we have been evaluating the phenotypic diversity within and between the targeted species.