Plant & Animal Genomes XIV Conference

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

Expression Patterns Of Sugarcane Genes Related To Reproductive Development

Marcelo C Dornelas^{1, 2} , Adriana PM Rodriguez²

¹  Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Fisiologia Vegetal, Cidade Universitária ¨Zeferino Vaz¨, Caixa Postal 6109, CEP 13.084-971, Campinas, SP, Brazil

²  Universidade de São Paulo, Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Av. Centenário, 303, 13400-970 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

We have extensively searched the SUCEST database for nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarities with genes related to the flowering processes. Our goal has been to identify and annotate genes related to the sugarcane reproductive development. We have identified and annotated more than 300 sugarcane EST clusters showing significant (mean e-value < e-50) similarity to plant genes known to be involved with the control of meristem identity and flowering. These sequence comparisons have uncovered conserved evolutionary pathways of flower development and flower pattern formation between dicots and monocots, as well as among grass species. Additionally, we have undertaken an analysis of the expression patterns of all identified sugarcane genes related to inflorescence and flower differentiation in a developmental context using a novel high throughput whole-mount in situ hybridization technique. This has provided background for further experiments to determine gene function. Using concerted molecular, computational and microscopic techniques we were able to unravel novel data on the evolutionary developmental genetics of grass flowers and their relation to the models of dicot flower development.