An integrated physical and genetic map of the rice genome

Rice was chosen as a model organism for genome sequencing because of its economic importance, small genome size, and syntenic relationship with other cereal species. We have constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome fingerprint–based physical map of the rice genome to facilitate the whole-genome sequencing of rice. Most of the rice genome (~90.6%) was anchored genetically by overgo hybridization, DNA gel blot hybridization, and in silico anchoring. Genome sequencing data also were integrated into the rice physical map. Comparison of the genetic and physical maps reveals that recombination is suppressed severely in centromeric regions as well as on the short arms of chromosomes 4 and 10. This integrated high-resolution physical map of the rice genome will greatly facilitate whole-genome sequencing by helping to identify a minimum tiling path of clones to sequence. Furthermore, the physical map will aid map-based cloning of agronomically important genes and will provide an important tool for the comparative analysis of grass genomes.     

Screening of Rice Genes from the cDNA Catalog Using the Data Obtained by Protein Sequencing

The partial amino acid sequences of 121 rice proteins separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE), were determined for a protein sequence data file. In the Rice Genome Research Program (RGP), more than 20,000 cDNA clones randomly selected from rice cDNA libraries have been sequenced to construct a cDNA catalog. Complimentary DNAs encoding about 30% of proteins in the protein sequence data file could be identified in the catalog by computer search. It was deduced that 20,000–40,000 genes are present in the rice genome. Only half of about 20,000 cDNAs sequenced in the RGP, corresponding to 1/4–1/2 of genes present in the entire rice genome, should have unique sequences after considering gene redundancy. This is consistent with the fact that the cDNAs encoding about 30% of the sequenced proteins could be identified in the catalog. If the size of the cDNA catalog is enlarged further, cDNAs encoding all proteins separated by 2D-PAGE could be easily identified from the catalog by using the protein sequence data.     

Structural and functional analysis of rice genome

Rice is an excellent system for plant genomics as it represents a modest size genome of 430 Mb. It feeds more than half the population of the world. Draft sequences of the rice genome, derived by whole-genome shotgun approach at relatively low coverage (4-6 X), were published and the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP) declared high quality (> 10 X), genetically anchored, phase 2 level sequence in 2002. In addition, phase 3 level finished sequence of chromosomes 1, 4 and 10 (out of 12 chromosomes of rice) has already been reported by scientists from IRGSP consortium. Various estimates of genes in rice place the number at >50,000. Already, over 28,000 full-length cDNAs have been sequenced, most of which map to genetically anchored genome sequence. Such information is very useful in revealing novel features of macroand micro-level synteny of rice genome with other cereals. Microarray analysis is unraveling the identity of rice genes expressing in temporal and spatial manner and should help target candidate genes useful for improving traits of agronomic importance. Simultaneously, functional analysis of rice genome has been initiated by marker-based characterization of useful genes and employing functional knock-outs created by mutation or gene tagging. Integration of this enormous information is expected to catalyze tremendous activity on basic and applied aspects of rice genomics.     

A novel repetitive DNA sequence in the genus Oryza

Summary Repetitive DNA sequences in the genus Oryza (rice) represent a large fraction of the nuclear DNA. The isolation and characterization of major repetitive DNA sequences will lead to a better understanding of rice genome organization and evolution. Here we report the characterization of a novel repetitive sequence, CC-1, from the CC genome. This repetitive sequence is present as long tandem arrays with a repeat unit 194 bp in length in the CC-diploid genome but 172 bp in length in the BBCC and CCDD tetraploid genomes. This repetitive sequence is also present, though at lower copy numbers, in the AA and BB genomes, but is absent in the EE and FF genomes. Hybridization experiments revealed considerable differences both in copy numbers and in restriction fragment patterns of CC-1 both between and within rice species. The results support the hypothesis that the CC genome is more closely related to the AA genome than to the BB genome, and most distantly related to the EE and FF genomes.     

Arabidopsis to rice. Applying knowledge from a weed to enhance our understanding of a crop species

Although Arabidopsis is well established as the premiere model species in plant biology, rice (Oryza sativa) is moving up fast as the second-best model organism. In addition to the availability of large sets of genetic, molecular, and genomic resources, two features make rice attractive as a model species: it represents the taxonomically distinct monocots and is a crop species. Plant structural genomics was pioneered on a genome-scale in Arabidopsis and the lessons learned from these efforts were not lost on rice. Indeed, the sequence and annotation of the rice genome has been greatly accelerated by method improvements made in Arabidopsis. For example, the value of full-length cDNA clones and deep expressed sequence tag resources, obtained in Arabidopsis primarily after release of the complete genome, has been recognized by the rice genomics community. For rice >250,000 expressed sequence tags and 28,000 full-length cDNA sequences are available prior to the completion of the genome sequence. With respect to tools for Arabidopsis functional genomics, deep sequence-tagged lines, inexpensive spotted oligonucleotide arrays, and a near-complete whole genome Affymetrix array are publicly available. The development of similar functional genomics resources for rice is in progress that for the most part has been more streamlined based on lessons learned from Arabidopsis. Genomic resource development has been essential to set the stage for hypothesis-driven research, and Arabidopsis continues to provide paradigms for testing in rice to assess function across taxonomic divisions and in a crop species.     

Genome size and sequence composition of moso bamboo: A comparative study

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) is one of the world’s most important bamboo species. It has the largest area of all planted bamboo—over two-thirds of the total bamboo forest area—and the highest economic value in China. Moso bamboo is a tetraploid (4x=48) and a special member of the grasses family. Although several genomes have been sequenced or are being sequenced in the grasses family, we know little about the genome of the bambusoids (bamboos). In this study, the moso bamboo genome size was estimated to be about 2034 Mb by flow cytometry (FCM), using maize (cv. B73) and rice (cv. Nipponbare) as internal references. The rice genome has been sequenced and the maize genome is being sequenced. We found that the size of the moso bamboo genome was similar to that of maize but significantly larger than that of rice. To determine whether the bamboo genome had a high proportion of repeat elements, similar to that of the maize genome, approximately 1000 genome survey sequences (GSS) were generated. Sequence analysis showed that the proportion of repeat elements was 23.3% for the bamboo genome, which is significantly lower than that of the maize genome (65.7%). The bamboo repeat elements were mainly Gypsy/DIRS1 and Ty1/Copia LTR retrotransposons (14.7%), with a few DNA transposons. However, more genomic sequences are needed to confirm the above results due to several factors, such as the limitation of our GSS data. This study is the first to investigate sequence composition of the bamboo genome. Our results are valuable for future genome research of moso and other bamboos.     

A novel compression tool for efficient storage of genome resequencing data

With the advent of DNA sequencing technologies, more and more reference genome sequences are available for many organisms. Analyzing sequence variation and understanding its biological importance are becoming a major research aim. However, how to store and process the huge amount of eukaryotic genome data, such as those of the human, mouse and rice, has become a challenge to biologists. Currently available bioinformatics tools used to compress genome sequence data have some limitations, such as the requirement of the reference single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) map and information on deletions and insertions. Here, we present a novel compression tool for storing and analyzing Genome ReSequencing data, named GRS. GRS is able to process the genome sequence data without the use of the reference SNPs and other sequence variation information and automatically rebuild the individual genome sequence data using the reference genome sequence. When its performance was tested on the first Korean personal genome sequence data set, GRS was able to achieve ～159-fold compression, reducing the size of the data from 2986.8 to 18.8 MB. While being tested against the sequencing data from rice and Arabidopsis thaliana, GRS compressed the 361.0 MB rice genome data to 4.4 MB, and the A. thaliana genome data from 115.1 MB to 6.5 KB. This de novo compression tool is available at http://gmdd.shgmo.org/Computational-Biology/GRS.     

Identification of the entire set of transferred chloroplast DNA sequences in the mitochondrial genome of rice

Summary The entire set of transferred chloroplast DNA sequences in the mitochondrial genome of rice (Oryza sativa cv. Nipponbare) was identified using clone banks that cover the chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes. The mitochondrial fragments that were homologous to chloroplast DNA were mapped and sequenced. The nucleotide sequences around the termini of integrated chloroplast sequences in the rice mtDNA revealed no common sequences or structures that might enhance the transfer of DNA. Sixteen chloroplast sequences, ranging from 32 bases to 6.8 kb in length, were found to be dispersed throughout the rice mitochondrial genome. The total length of these sequences is equal to approximately 6% (22 kb) of the rice mitochondrial genome and to 19% of the chloroplast genome. The transfer of segments of chloroplast DNA seems to have occurred at different times, both before and after the divergence of rice and maize. The mitochondrial genome appears to have been rearranged after the transfer of chloroplast sequences as a result of recombination at these sequences. The rice mitochondrial DNA contains nine intact tRNA genes and three tRNA pseudogenes derived from the chloroplast genome.     

重复DNA顺序pRRD9在稻属中的拷贝数测定

本文应用狭缝印渍杂交方法,把水稻基因组总DNA和含水稻中度重复顺序片段的质粒(pRRD9)DNA分别转移到尼龙膜上形成狭缝印渍、然后用~(32)P标记的 pRRD9插入片段进行杂交、根据各狭缝印渍的放射性强度,测定水稻(Oryza)一些栽培种和野生种基因组中重复DNA顺序的拷贝数,并就拷贝数与水稻进化关系及基因组型的联系进行讨论.     

Reasons for lower transformation efficiency in indica rice using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation: lessons from transformation assays and genome-wide expression profiling

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated genetic transformation has been routinely used in rice for more than a decade. However, the transformation efficiency of the indica rice variety is still unsatisfactory and much lower than that of japonica cultivars. Further improvement on the transformation efficiency lies in the genetic manipulation of the plant itself, which requires a better understanding of the underlying process accounting for the susceptibility of plant cells to Agrobacterium infection as well as the identification of plant genes involved in the transformation process. In this study, transient and stable transformation assays using different japonica and indica cultivars showed that the lower transformation efficiency in indica rice was mainly due to the low efficiency in T-DNA integration into the plant genome. Analyses of the global gene expression patterns across the transformation process in different varieties revealed major differences in the expression of genes responding to Agrobacterium within the first 6 h after infection and more differentially expressed genes were observed in the indica cultivar Zhenshan 97 (ZS), with a number of genes repressed early during infection. Microarray analysis revealed an important effect of plant defense response on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. It has been shown that some genes which may be necessary for the transformation process were down-regulated in the indica cultivar ZS. This dataset provided a versatile resource for plant genomic research to understand the regulatory network of transformation process, and showed great promise for improving indica rice transformation using genetic manipulation of the rice genome.     

Genome sequence of foxtail millet (Setaria italica) provides insights into grass evolution and biofuel potential

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), a member of the Poaceae grass family, is an important food and fodder crop in arid regions and has potential for use as a C(4) biofuel. It is a model system for other biofuel grasses, including switchgrass and pearl millet. We produced a draft genome (～423 Mb) anchored onto nine chromosomes and annotated 38,801 genes. Key chromosome reshuffling events were detected through collinearity identification between foxtail millet, rice and sorghum including two reshuffling events fusing rice chromosomes 7 and 9, 3 and 10 to foxtail millet chromosomes 2 and 9, respectively, that occurred after the divergence of foxtail millet and rice, and a single reshuffling event fusing rice chromosome 5 and 12 to foxtail millet chromosome 3 that occurred after the divergence of millet and sorghum. Rearrangements in the C(4) photosynthesis pathway were also identified.     

Genome size and sequence composition of moso bamboo: A comparative study

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) is one of the world's most important bamboo species. It has the largest area of all planted bamboo―over two-thirds of the total bamboo forest area―and the highest economic value in China. Moso bamboo is a tetraploid (4x=48) and a special member of the grasses family. Although several genomes have been sequenced or are being sequenced in the grasses family, we know little about the genome of the bambusoids (bamboos). In this study, the moso bamboo genome size was estimated to be about 2034 Mb by flow cytometry (FCM), using maize (cv. B73) and rice (cv. Nipponbare) as internal references. The rice genome has been sequenced and the maize genome is being sequenced. We found that the size of the moso bamboo genome was similar to that of maize but significantly larger than that of rice. To determine whether the bamboo genome had a high proportion of repeat elements, similar to that of the maize genome, approximately 1000 genome survey sequences (GSS) were generated. Sequence analysis showed that the proportion of repeat elements was 23.3% for the bamboo genome, which is significantly lower than that of the maize ge-nome (65.7%). The bamboo repeat elements were mainly Gypsy/DIRS1 and Ty1/Copia LTR retrotrans-posons (14.7%), with a few DNA transposons. However, more genomic sequences are needed to con-firm the above results due to several factors, such as the limitation of our GSS data. This study is the first to investigate sequence composition of the bamboo genome. Our results are valuable for future genome research of moso and other bamboos.     

水稻基因组中一类具有潜在转座活性的Solo—LTR的结构分析和鉴定

在水稻4号染色体两个BAC克隆序列分析中,发现了两个solo-LTR,分别命名为SLTR1和SLTR2。它们分别位于水稻18S rRNA基因和一逆转座子内部。序列比较发现,SLTR1和SLTR2存在着较高的同源性,并与水稻逆转座子RIRE8的LTR序列高度同源,分别为89.1%和70.1%。它们属于一类水稻gypsy类型逆转座子。利用SLTR1和SLTR2与水稻DNA杂交,结果显示两者广泛分布于水稻基因组中,是一类高拷贝重复序列。分别利用SLTR1和SLTR2的两侧特异性序列设计引物进行PCR扩增,结果发现在基因组的相应位置并不存在SLTR1或SLTR2;利用它们两侧被打断基因的特异性片段杂交基因组DNA,得到了同样的结果。这意味着SLTR1和SLTR2来源于基因组的其它位置,并通过某种转座的过程进入18S rRNA基因和另一逆转座子内部。Solo-LTR存在着这种潜在的转座活性,对于进一步研究solo-LTR的来源以及其在基因组进货和基因的表达调控中具有一定的意义。     

Detailed Comparative Mapping of Cereal Chromosome Regions Corresponding to the Ph1 Locus in Wheat

Detailed physical mapping of markers from rice chromosome 9, and from syntenous (at the genetic level) regions of other cereal genomes, has resulted in rice yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) contigs spanning parts of rice 9. This physical mapping, together with comparative genetic mapping, has demonstrated that synteny has been largely maintained between the genomes of several cereals at the level of contiged YACs. Markers located in one region of rice chromosome 9 encompassed by the YAC contigs have exhibited restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) using deletion lines for the Ph1 locus. This has allowed demarcation of the region of rice chromosome 9 syntenous with the ph1b and ph1c deletions in wheat chromosome 5B. A group of probes located in wheat homoeologous group 5 and barley chromosome 5H, however, have synteny with rice chromosomes other than 9. This suggests that the usefulness of comparative trait analysis and of the rice genome as a tool to facilitate gene isolation will differ from one region to the next, and implies that the rice genome is more ancestral in structure than those of the Triticeae.     

Physical mapping of the rice genome with YAC clones

Construction of a rice physical map covered by YAC clones which have been arranged over half of the genome length is presented here. A total of 1285 RFLP and RAPD markers almost evenly distributed on the rice genetic map could select 2974 YAC clones and 2443 clones of them were located on their original positions. Rice YACs carrying 350 kb average insert fragments of 2443 clones could cover 222 megabase length of the rice genome, corresponding to 52% of the whole genome size (4.3 Mb). Chromosome landing with many YAC clones on the high-density genetic map loci efficiently integrated the genetic map with a physical map. This is the first step to generate a comprehensive genome map of rice. An integrated genome map should be an indispensable tool to figure out genome structure as well as to clone trait genes by map-based cloning.