Genomic Resources for Gene Discovery, Functional Genome Annotation, and Evolutionary Studies of Maize and Its Close Relatives
Authors
Early Online September 13, 2013, doi: 10.1534/genetics.113.157115 Genetics September 13, 2013 genetics.113.157115
Abstract
Maize is one of the most important food crops and a key model for genetics and developmental biology. A genetically anchored and high-quality draft genome sequence of maize inbred B73 has been obtained to serve as a reference sequence. To facilitate evolutionary studies in maize and its close relatives, much like the OMAP (www.OMAP.org) BAC resource did for the rice community, we constructed BAC libraries for maize inbred lines Zheng58, Chang7-2 and Mo17 and maize wild relatives Zea mays ssp. parviglumis and Tripsacum dactyloides. Furthermore, to extend functional genomic studies to maize and sorghum, we also constructed BIBAC libraries for the maize inbred B73 and the sorghum land race Nengsi-1. The BAC/BIBAC vectors facilitate transfer of large intact DNA inserts from BAC clones to the BIBAC vector and functional complementation of large DNA fragments. These seven ZMAP BAC/BIBAC libraries have average insert sizes ranging from 92kb to 148kb, organellar DNA from 0.17% to 2.3%, empty vector rates between 0.35% and 5.56%, and genome equivalents of 4.7- to 8.4-fold. The usefulness of the Parviglumis and Tripsacum BAC libraries was demonstrated by mapping clones to the reference genome. Novel genes and alleles present in these ZMAP libraries can now be used for functional complementation studies and positional or homology-based cloning of genes for translational genomics.
