Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference

Poster: Sequencing & EST
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EST EXPRESSION ANALYSIS OF TALL FESCUE

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, 2510 Sam Noble Parkway, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73401, USA

Tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea Schreb., is a major cool season forage and turf grass in the temperate regions of the world. We have initiated an expressed sequence tag (EST) and expression analysis project in tall fescue to generate ~40,000 ESTs during the year 2001. The EST data will be generated from leaf, stem, and root libraries grown under optimal and stress conditions and from floral tissues. High-throughput sequence analyses will be performed in collaboration with the Medicago Functional Genomics Program at the Noble Foundation. Unique ESTs will be used for the development of RFLP and SSR markers. In addition, these ESTs will be used in the generation of microarrays for expression analysis. A priority will be placed upon the identification of genes differentially expressed during stress conditions e.g. heat, cold, drought, grazing, diseases and insect herbivory. Data from this project should prove beneficial for improvement of other closely related grass species including Festuca pratensis, Lolium perenne and Lolium multiflorum. The data generated from this project will be publicly available and should serve as a valuable resource for the forage and turf grass research communities.