Plant & Animal Genomes XIV Conference

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

Exploiting Comparative Genomics To Study Genes Affecting Plant Height In Pearl Millet

Katrien M. Devos

  Dept. of Crop and Soil Sciences, and Dept. of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Over the years, a number of genetics and genomics resources have been developed for pearl millet, including different marker types, good genetic maps, comparative knowledge and a 6X BAC library. We can now start to exploit these resources to isolate genes, to study their function in pearl millet and to conduct comparative analyses of the orthologous genes in other species.
Reducing plant height through the introduction of dwarfing genes has been very successful in the production of high yielding varieties in both wheat and rice. In pearl millet, the recessive dwarfing gene d2 is key in reducing plant height. Comparative genetic mapping has shown that this gene is different from the wheat and rice Green Revolution Rht-1 and sd1 genes. A second set of interesting genes affecting height are the d4/Br1 genes which interact to give a semi-dwarf stature with potential applications in agriculture. Putative candidate genes for these traits have been identified from rice. We will present progress in the cloning of these genes and also discuss some of the features of the pearl millet genome.