Plant & Animal Genomes XIV Conference

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

Brachypodium distachyon As A Model System For Grass Functional Genomics Relevant To Temperate Cereals And Forage Grasses

John Draper¹ , Robert Hasterok² , David Parker¹ , Manfred Beckmann¹ , Agnieszka Marasek³ , Iain Donnison⁴ , Luis Mur¹ , Ian Armstead⁴ , Pauline Bablak¹ , Glyn Jenkins¹

¹  Institute of Biological Sciences, Edward Llwyd Building, University of Wales Aberystwyth, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3DA, Wales, United Kingdom

²  Department of Plant Anatomy and Cytology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia, 40-032 Katowice, Poland

³  Department of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture, 96-100 Skierniewice, Poland

⁴  Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, SY23 3EB, Wales, United Kingdom

The impact of Arabidopsis as a model system for asking basic questions in plant science cannot be underestimated. Although a wealth of genomics resources has become available for rice, unfortunately many important traits in temperate cereals are not reflected in this tropical species.
Functional genomics technology may be divided into that which is geared up to generating information from isolated DNA, and technologies dependent on biological/genetic features of the plants under question. A small simple genome and good genetics is an obvious starting point but equally important are the following:
• small size and the ability to handle large populations of plants
• to be able to grow plants under simple growth conditions
• self fertile, simple breeding system and fast life cycle
• availability of a diverse range of genotypes
• simple transformation system
• hosts for important pathogens
• availability of efficient insertional mutagenesis technology
The presentation will focus on outlining progress being made in regard to the development of Brachypodium distachyon as a candidate species for a model monocot system. An overview of the accession collection maintained in Aberystwyth and its cytological and morphological analysis will be presented together with an update of progress on transformation technology. The interactions of B. distachyon with major cereal pathogens will be outlined together with an overview of progress in genome analysis centring on BAC resources. A recent programme aiming to utilise B. distachyon as a model species for development of metabolomics resources relevant to cereals and grasses will be described.