DEVELOPMENT OF REVERSE GENETICS RESOURCE FOR DIPLOID
WHEAT (Triticum monococcum)
Oscar Riera-Lizarazu
Dept. of Crop and Soil Science,
ABSTRACT
Despite its large genome and polyploid
nature, molecular genetic analysis of wheat is rapidly advancing due, in part,
to the availability of community resources including numerous BAC and cDNA libraries, a large number of ESTs, and increasingly
dense genetic and physical maps. Still, there is a need for resources to go
from gene sequence to gene function.
Thus, the aim of this project is to investigate a reverse-genetics or
gene-knockout resource in a cultivated diploid wheat, Triticum
monococcum, that is based on a large collection
of plants (40,000) carrying chemically-induced small deletions. Screening of this mutant collection for
lesions in a gene of interest will be accomplished through an efficient pooling
scheme combined with a PCR-based assay termed DEALING (DEtecting
Adduct Lesions IN Genomes). Subsequently,
phenotypic analysis of plants carrying a particular deletion will shed light on
the function of the gene in question. A
public database (http://wire.ndsu.nodak.edu) to disseminate the information
generated by this and future DEALING experiments is under development.