ARS | Publication request: THE USE OF FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS TO ADVANCE ALLELOPATHIC SCIENCE-INVESTIGATING SORGOLEONE BIOSYNTHESIS AS AN EXAMPLE

Submitted to: International Allelopathy Congress
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: June 18, 2005
Publication Date: September 23, 2005
Citation: Baerson, S.R., Cook, D., Dayan, F.E., Rimando, A.M., Pan, Z., Duke, S.O. 2005. The use of functional genomics to advance allelopathic science-investigating sorgoleone biosynthesis as an example. HArper, J.D.I., An, M., Wu, H., Kent J.H., Eds. Charles Sturts University, Wagga Wagga, Australia. Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Allelopathy. p. 191-196.

Technical Abstract: Expressed sequence tags (ESTs), are single-pass cDNA sequences selected at random from complex phage or plasmid libraries. The large EST datasets which have been generated for many different organisms serve as indispensable tools for both structural and functional genomics research. Datasets derived from standard, non-amplified libraries also reflect the abundance of different mRNA species in the tissues or cell types from which the libraries were generated, thus creating an electronic gene expression profile of moderately to highly abundant mRNAs. Our research efforts directed toward the discovery of genes involved in the biosynthesis of the potent allelochemical sorgoleone exploits this latter aspect of EST datasets. Ultrastructural studies indicate that root hair cells in sorghum are the primary site of sorgoleone biosynthesis, and we have generated an EST database comprised of approximately 5,500 sequences from this cell type. Highly expressed candidate sequences representing all of the putative enzyme classes required for the sorgoleone biosynthetic pathway were identified within this database.