W101 Genome and Network Evolution: From Arabidopsis to the Brassicales

Date: Saturday, January 14, 2012
Time: 12:00 PM
Room: Royal Palm Salon 1-2
J. Chris Pires , University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
We describe an updated model of the Arabidopsis thaliana metabolic network and use flux balance analyses to address long-standing questions in plant evolutionary biology.  We analyze the two most recent whole genome duplications (WGDs) in Arabidopsis in a phylogenomics framework to investigate patterns of duplicate gene retention, innovation of novel gene functions, and the origin of novel pathways.  Recently, the Brassicales Map Alignment Project (BMAP) formed a partnership with the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) to sequence 20 new species in the order Brassicales chosen for their phylogenetic breadth, small genome size, and community input.  These genomes, coupled with the International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium (IAIC) and other –omics efforts, will allow for the unprecedented integration of databases across networks (e.g. metabolic, regulatory, signaling, and protein-protein interaction).  The joint goals and challenges of BMAP and the IAIC are to manage data and access, leverage international resources and collaborations, and represent the evolving needs of the community while reflecting funding contexts of respective countries.  The prize is the ability to confront fundamental questions in plant biology by integrating data from Arabidopsis and Brassica across the Brassicales