Exploring the potential for translational genomics approaches in forage legumes: regions of highly conserved microsynteny between white clover and Medicago truncatula revealed by BAC sequencing

Melanie Febrer, M. T. Abberton, Glyn Jenkins, Dan Milbourne

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The model legume species Medicago truncatula is a potentially useful tool for gene discovery in white clover using translational genomics strategies. A prerequisite to the practical implementation of this approach is a good understanding of the extent of conservation of gene order between the species. Previous studies have demonstrated conservation at the macrosyntenic level, but no published information exists on the extent of conserved microsynteny between these species. In a previously published study, we reported the construction of a BAC library of white clover, the end sequencing of approximately 700 clover BACs, and the comparison of these BAC-end sequences to the M. truncatula genome. We found that 14 paired BAC-ends were shown to have the equivalent pairs of M. truncatula sequence on the same M. truncatula BAC clone or contig sequence within a span of 25?200 Kb, suggesting they represent orthologous regions in the two species. In this follow-up analysis, we have chosen five of these BACs, sequenced them to approximately six-fold coverage, and compared the resulting assembled contigs to their putatively equivalent regions of M. truncatula. Highly conserved gene content and almost complete conservation of gene order and orientation for all five sequences were found, suggesting that translational genomics approaches for gene discovery using Medicago could be successful.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSustainable use of Genetic Diversity in Forage and Turf Breeding
EditorsC. Huyghe
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages415-419
Number of pages5
ISBN (Print)9789048187058
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jun 2010

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