W400 Structure and Evolution of the Foxtail Millet Genome

Date: Monday, January 16, 2012
Time: 1:15 PM
Room: Sunrise
Katrien Devos , University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Xuewen Wang , University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Xiaomei Wu , University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Hao Wang , Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Uffe Hellsten , Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA
Jeremy Schmutz , HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville, AL, USA
Dan Rokhsar , DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA
Jeffrey L. Bennetzen , University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Foxtail millet is a diploid Panicoid (2n=2x=18) with a ~500 Mb genome.  While foxtail millet is a crop in its own right, it has gained importance over the past few years as a model system for C4 grasses, and in particular for the genetically complex biofuel crop switchgrass.  The foxtail millet genome has been Sanger shotgun sequenced to ~8X coverage and the assembled scaffolds have been anchored to a ~1000 loci genetic map.  Comparative analysis of the foxtail millet genome sequence with that of its closest relative with a sequenced genome, sorghum, and using rice as an outgroup has shown that the foxtail millet genome has undergone more rearrangements than sorghum since the two species diverged.  We also compared the foxtail millet genome sequence with the switchgrass genetic map, and although the comparison lacks resolution, at least some of these rearrangements appear to be foxtail millet specific.  Colinearity at the microscale was analyzed by comparing gene orders in short stretches of switchgrass genomic sequence and BAC-end sequences with the order of orthologous genes in foxtail millet and sorghum.  Colinearity was superior in the switchgrass – foxtail millet combination, supporting the use of foxtail millet to unravel the genetics of switchgrass.