Brachypodium distachyon. Photo courtesy of Zoya
Akulova-Barlow.
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New Genetic Resources for Cereal Crops
By Don Comis
November 13, 2008 An
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientist has developed a special population of plants of the wild grass
Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) that will help speed up
scientists' search for genes that could help wheat and other major crops resist
diseases such as Ug99, a form of stem rust that threatens 80 percent of the
world's wheat.
The plants developed by ARS plant geneticist
David
Garvin are the first recombinant inbred line (RILs) population of
Brachypodium. This means offspring of each line in the population will
retain the same genetic identity in perpetuity, according to Garvin, who works
at the ARS
Plant
Science Research Unit in St. Paul, Minn. This allows scientists to more
efficiently explore the genetic and molecular basis of a range of traits.
Previously, Garvin had developed earlier versions of populations segregating
for genes and traits, but those populations permitted only one look at the
genetics of a given trait. With the new RILs, all the offspring of each line
will always have the same genes, so scientists around the world can repeat
experiments as often as they desire.
The ability to work with large numbers of plants with the same genetic
makeup gives scientists the opportunity to obtain highly accurate information
on the number of genes that control a trait. This provides a strong start
toward identifying the location of these genes on Brachypodium
chromosomes.
It took Garvin more than three years to create the RILs. The research
involved crosses and growing the entire population to maturity repeatedly to
fix the genetic make-up of each plant. He has many additional RIL populations
nearing completion.
ARS is a scientific research agency within the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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