Abstract
Recent studies have indicated that many plant genomes have regions of common gene content and genetic map colinearity. This is particularly well documented in the grasses, where colinearity has been demonstrated both for recombinational maps using DNA markers and in the orthologous placement of comparable genes. Colinearity in regions of a centiMorgan or less (i.e., microcolinearity) has not been extensively investigated. Preliminary studies demonstrate that gene content, order and orientation are often conserved in small regions of related genomes, but there are frequent exceptions. Results indicate that grass genome colinearity will be a tremendously valuable tool that allows the synergistic pooling of knowledge and biological materials across a broad range of plant species. From this colinear perspective, genes from any grass species can be used for the improvement and understanding of any other grass. However, further investigations across a wide range of species and genomic locations will be needed to determine the limitations of the approach. In the interim, it is important to carefully investigate (rather than assume) the microcolinearity of the syntenic regions that are being analyzed.
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Bennetzen, J.L. (1999). The Grasses as a Single Genetic System. In: Vasil, I.K. (eds) Molecular improvement of cereal crops. Advances in Cellular and Molecular Biology of Plants, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4802-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4802-3_13
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