GRAPEVINE, Texas – Gene sequencing is giving crop researchers a better understanding of plant mechanisms in the world’s major crops.
Earlier this year, researchers announced they had mapped the sorghum genome, which contains about 30,000 genes.
It was the fourth commercial crop to be sequenced, following in the footsteps of soybeans, corn and rice.
Scientists believe the map can help identify the genes that make sorghum a drought-tolerant and high-biomass crop. Those traits could be transferred to corn, which is a close relative, to improve the crop’s food and fuel capabilities.
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It is one example of how a map showing the location of genes in a plant can be invaluable to researchers.
It is also why the corn industry spent $32 million creating a draft sequence of the corn genome, which was unveiled in February 2008.
The corn map will be used to create varieties better able to withstand drought and other environmental stresses and to create a more sustainable, nutritious and abundant food supply.
“We’re very excited about that because we believe technology is our future,” said Pam Johnson, chair of the National Corn Growers Association’s research and development action team.
“This was a huge step, a huge milestone.”
Johnson said scientists now know the location of each gene. The next step is to identify their functions.
“It laid out the map of the town, so now you have to go in there and find the streets where each gene is.”
She said that is when the industry will truly recoup its investment because it will improve the profitability and efficiency of corn production by speeding up the delivery of new beneficial traits.
Johnson said it is only a matter of time before crops such as canola and wheat are sequenced. The cost of gene mapping has plummeted and the technology has improved since Arabidopsis became the first plant sequenced in 2001.
“Now they are just going bing, bing, bing, bing, bing,” she said.
