Title: "From Genome to Gene: Using an "-omic" Aproach to Identify Causal Loci"
Speaker: Ivan Baxter, Senior Research Associate Bindley Bioscience Center
Place: Krannert (KRAN) G016; November 14, 2006, Tuesday, 4:30pm

Abstract

As high-throughput phenotyping becomes more prevalent, new, interesting traits will appear at an increasingly rapid pace. To turn these traits into useable knowledge, the process of mapping and identifying the loci responsible for these traits must also accelerate. In the Salt lab (Purdue University), we are interested in identifying and understanding the function of all the genes which control the uptake and accumulation of elements in plant tissues. To accomplish this, we have developed a high-throughput elemental profiling system to measure the levels of 17 elements in over 60,000 plant samples, a process we call Ionomics. We have performed several screens for phenotypes including forward genetics, reverse genetics and natural variation and identified hundreds of lines with interesting ionomic profiles. I will describe our efforts to rapidly identify and characterize the genes responsible for these phenotypes, including using full genome microarrays to map mutants and identify genome deletions and leveraging the large amount of publicly available -omics data. I will also discuss our efforts to use our large dataset to understand more about the physiology of the plant and how the levels of different ions relate to each other.

Associated reading:

Lahner B, Gong J, Mahmoudian M, Smith EL, Abid KB, Rogers EE, Guerinot ML, Harper JF, Ward JM, McIntyre L, Schroeder JI, Salt DE (2003) Genomic scale profiling of nutrient and trace elements in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nat Biotechnol 21: 1215-1221

Rus A, Baxter I, Muthukumar B, Gustin J, Lahner B, Yakubova E, Salt DE.* **(2006) Natural Variants of At*/*HKT1*/* Enhance Na^+ Accumulation in Two Wild Populations of Arabidopsis. PLOS Genetics*




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