THE PINE GENE DISCOVERY PROJECT: A PROGRESS REPORT

¹ Department of Forestry North Carolina State University Raleigh NC

² Department of Biology California State University - Hayward Hayward CA

³ Computational Biology Centers University of Minnesota St Paul MN

Gene discovery by single-pass sequencing of cDNA clones is a useful approach to developing a resource base to support research in any species of interest. The Pine Gene Discovery Project was initiated in 1997 with joint support from the U.S. Department of Energy and four companies from the forest products industry. The goal of this project is to obtain partial sequences from 10,000 cDNA clones of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.), to use those sequences to query public databases for similar sequences, and to make the search results and the cDNA clones available to the research community. Clones are being picked randomly from cDNA libraries prepared from differentiating xylem, immature male strobili, and vegetative shoot tips. Additional libraries will be prepared as the level of redundancy detected in the sequences obtained from these libraries reaches excessive levels. A summary of results to date will be presented, including the distribution of sequences within and between libraries, the levels of redundancy, and prospects for further gene discovery work in pine.