Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference

January 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Poster: Forest Trees
            

COMPARATIVE MAPPING BETWEEN DOUGLAS-FIR AND LOBLOLLY PINE USING EST MARKERS

¹ Institute of Forest Genetics, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Environmental Horticulture Department, University of California at Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA

² Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Universita' di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43100 Parma, Italy

³ Environmental Horticulture Department, University of California at Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA

⁴ Institute of Forest Genetics, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 2480 Carson Road, Placerville, CA 95667, USA

Conifer genomes are very large compared to most other plant species and unlikely to be completely sequenced in the near future. Therefore comparative genomics and comparative mapping will play a central role in many areas of conifer genome research. Expressed sequence tag polymorphisms (ESTPs) proved to be the good markers for comparative mapping. They are often polymorphic, orthologous markers that can be studied across different species and represent functional genes. They can be developed relatively easily from already available cDNA/EST libraries and large gene discovery projects. We analyzed all available RFLPs and ESTs developed in conifers and mapped in both loblolly pine and Douglas-fir. We found 12 RFLP and 37 EST orthologous markers suitable for comparative mapping between loblolly pine and Douglas-fir. There were found eight apparently synthenic linkage groups in loblolly pine and Douglas-fir that share two and more orthologous markers each. Comparative mapping shows that both chromosomal breakage and merging as well as large translocations might play significant role in evolution of these conifers. This study is part of the Conifer Comparative Genomics Project (CCGP) formed as an international collaboration at the Institute of Forest Genetics (USDA Forest Service) to develop orthologous genetic markers, publicly available reference mapping populations that can be shared among different laboratories, and the bioinformatic tools to facilitate comparative mapping. The results of our study and marker information will be available at http://dendrome.ucdavis.edu.