Genomes
Maize Genome Sequencing Project
Corn (Maize) is a major crop in the U.S., a main source of global food supply, and an
important model system for basic biological research. Knowledge gained
from maize can also be used to improve its relatives such as sorghum, wheat,
rice, switchgrass and
Miscanthus
At AGI, we have been working on the maize genome
since 1998. In the
Maize Mapping Project,
we built a BAC-based maize agarose physical map and an integrated genetic and
physical map. In the
maize sequencing pilot project,
we constructed a maize high information content fingerprint (HICF)
physical map and sequenced the ends of all BACs in the physical map. Extensive manual
editing of the agarose map was performed. In July 2005, we released a
sequencing-ready
maize physical map
In November, 2005, The Maize Sequencing Consortium was formed and awarded to
sequence the maize genome. The
Maize Genome Sequencing Project provided a maize reference genome sequence with finished high quality sequence
in low copy regions. Co-PIs of the sequencing consortium are:
In February, 2008 at the 50
th Maize Genetic Meeting, the Maize Sequencing
Consortium (
picture) announced the draft sequence
of the maize genome. Since then, extensive work has been done to finish the
remaining clones, improve the physical map, anchor the sequence to the genetic
map, build an AGP (A Golden Path) to generate maize pseudomolecules, and to
annotate the genome. Please visit the official project
website for details.
On March 20, 2009, AGI released an updated maize integrated
genetic and physical map, consisting of 440 contigs. Please
click here to check the quality of each contig, including order and orientation
information. Please visit our maize
FPC ftp site
to download the file . The sequenced BACs are highlighted in red on the FPC map.
The AGP and pseudomolecules for the 10 maize chromosomes and
the unanchored contigs (chr0) are available for
download. We also
released the
maize minimum tiling path (MTP)
for the sequencing project. This MTP will link the pseudomolecules to physical
contigs. In the MTP website, when you click the clone name, it will show you
the best hits of the clone to other clones in the sequencing project. The
BES2BAC column indicates the sequence similarities of the BES of this clone to
the sequenced BAC on its left or right end. A simple click will lead to the
sequence alignment.
