EXTENDED COMPARATIVE GENOMICS TO IDENTIFY AGRICULTURALLY USEFUL GENES IN PLANTS

Tomokazu Kawashima

Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, 1405 Veterans Dr., 321 Plant Science Building, Lexington, KY 40546-0312, USA

Abstract

In this post-genomics era, transcriptional profiles and genomic sequences of species of interest can be obtained with relative ease and low cost. A key to successfully identifying agriculturally useful genes from these massive data sets is how to separate these genes from noise. We took a comparative genomics approach extended to the most basal land plant Marchantia polymorpha in order to find key genes controlling plant reproduction. Marchantia is a liverwort, whose aquatic ancestor conquered the land and first generated embryos for reproduction. Although the mode of reproduction differs between Marchantia and flowering plants, comparisons and analyses of reproduction-specific genes revealed highly conserved factors playing roles in key events in their reproduction. I present one transcription factor gene involved in male sterility in land plants, which will be useful for hybrid seed generation. An evolutionary aspect of plant reproduction will also be discussed.