Plant & Animal Genomes XVI Conference

January 12-16, 2008
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Sequencing The Brachypodium Genome

Jeremy J Schmutz¹ , Therese Mitros² , Susan Lucas² , Jane Grimwood¹ , Naxin Huo⁵ , Yong Q. Gu⁵ , Michael Bevan³ , David Garvin⁴ , John Vogel⁵ , Dan Rokhsar²

¹  Joint Genome Institute – Stanford Human Genome Center, 975 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA

²  Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA

³  John Innes Centre, Norwich NR47UJ, UK

⁴  USDA-ARS Plant Science Research Unit, St Paul, MN 55108, USA

⁵  USDA-ARS, Western Regional Research Center Genomics and Gene Discovery Research Unit, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710, USA

Brachypodium distachyon was chosen for sequencing through the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute’s Community Sequencing Program because of its potential importance as a simple experimental model for BioEnergy feedstock plants such as switchgrass and wheat. The genome of Brachypodium has an estimated diploid size of 300 Mb and is expected to contain less repetitive sequence than other previously sequenced grass species. We are using a whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing approach utilizing three sized subclone libraries and BAC-end sequence (BES) from two available BAC libraries. The target coverage level for subclone sequencing is 8x redundant coverage. We have now completed 4x sequence coverage and expect to reach 8x sequence coverage in early 2008. The final draft release of Brachypodium will be integrated with the ongoing genetic and physical mapping efforts to produce a chromosome scale genomic assembly. We will report on current status of the sequencing project and give an overview of the initial analysis of the midpoint sequence assembly.