Plant Genome II Conference
Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, January, 1994.
PG-II: MAPPING ENABLES SERENDIPITY
MAPPING ENABLES SERENDIPITY.
Edward H. Coe, ARS-USDA and Dept. of Agronomy, Curtis Hall,
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211.
The mapping of genetic loci, especially by the use of
variants in phenotypic traits (commonly called 'mutants'), tends
to be viewed as something a geneticist simply 'does' to ensure
discrimination of mutants from each other, or 'because they are
there'. Because of a series of advances, mapping of variants
instead is now a creative, comprehension- and
application-directed process. Among these advances are (1)
highly efficient mapping techniques for genes; (2) realization
that the number of functions to be defined is finite; (3) the
ability to clone genes and cDNAs and to use the clones for
mapping in the absence of phenotype polymorphisms; and (4) the
expanding resources of data banks, accompanied by creative use of
the information in them. Combined, resources of mapped mutants,
resources of mapped, functionally defined sequences, and analysis
with database tools enable unanticipated knowledge and insights
about genes and about the genome.
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