I’m just about wrapped up with the big project I’ve been working on recently. Hope to be able to say more about it in the not-too-distant future. Having to be secretive in science sucks. But there’s a lot of be happy about! I’m done teaching for a long time. As much as I enjoyed working [...]
Posts Tagged ‘maize’
BBC on drought tolerant maize/corn
There’s a new episode of BBC’s Discovery: Feeling the World out this morning. It’s only 26 minutes long, and the full piece is definitely worth a listen, but if you don’t have 26 minutes, the meat of the post can be summarized in 8 minutes: 3:20-7:54: Introducing the subject, developing drought tolerant varieties of maize [...]
The two genomes of maize
I recently go back from the maize meeting. I mentioned before that big part of the reason to do poster presentations is to get comfortable discussing ones research with people who haven’t specialized in the exact same subject. In my case, my poster got a fair bit of interest which was great. (Although I was [...]
Wow!
Who could have predicted maize geneticists would be so interested in maize genes? The entry I posted last night on Purple plant1 and Colored aleurone1 easily received more traffic in its first day on the site (it’s still got a long way to go before it catches long term readership attractors like water chestnuts and [...]
Two classical maize genes, synteny, and the mystery of the missing gene
Colored aleurone1 and Purple plant1 are both genes with long histories in maize research and are involved in the regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis. The mutant version of purple plant1 does exactly what it sounds like. (In the proper genetic background) it has plants producing anthocyanin (a purple plant pigment) everywhere, resulting in purple plants. The mutant form of colored aleurone1 was identified from a mutant that changed the color of individual corn kernels. The two genes are also duplicates (homeologs) resulting from the maize whole genome duplication. More details, pictures of the mutant plants, a quick and interesting syntenic analysis and the mystery of the missing gene, in the full post.
The Most Studied Genes of Maize (and why we love kernel phenotypes)
Of the fifteen most studied genes in maize (cool graphical table included), thirteen can have kernel phenotypes when mutated. Why? Because of what a geneticist can tell from looking at a single ear of corn that shows such a mutant phenotype (details inside).
By The Numbers 12/19/09
Some statistics pulled together from various sources on wheat production, monsanto, lawsuits (not wheat related), and a random moon fact for no particular reason.
Summary of the Coverage of the Maize Genome here at J+TGC
Summarizing a couple of Virginia Walbot’s ten reasons you should care about the maize genome Hear one of the lead authors of the maize genome paper explain how and why it was done in under four minutes. Reviewing the quality of the genome sequence itself. We can already see research made possible by the maize [...]