BIOL 440 Plant Genomics
Additional resources: Genomics Acronym Zoo
Topics covered:
[note lecture content may change as the course is developed]
Overview
Major features of plant genomes: Organization, size, diversity, transposable elements, microsatellites and other repetitive DNA, gene density, colinearity, plant genome size variation, genome size expansion and contraction
Major features of plant genomes: Gene duplication, gene families, pseudogenes, cis-regulatory elements, non-protein-coding genes
Major features of plant genomes: Heterochromatin and euchromatin, centromeres, telomeres
Methods and resources
Genome mapping and sequencing: marker development and mapping, genome sequencing methods, next generation sequencing technologies, genome annotation
Sequenced plant genomes, comparative plant genomics
Analysis of gene expression (transcription) on a genome-wide scale and applications to other areas of plant biology
Sequence analysis tools, web databases for plant genomics and transcriptomics, introduction to bioinformatics analyses
Epigenetics: DNA methylation, histone methylation and acetylation, microRNAs, and genomics approaches to studying epigenetics
Applications
Applications of genomics and molecular genetics for determining the genetic basis of agricultural traits
Genetics and genomics of crop domestication and genes selected for during domestication
Applications of genetic and genomic approaches to studying hybridization, hybrid vigour, and allopolyploidy
Applications of genomics approaches to population and evolutionary questions: Introgression, phylogenomics, chloroplast genomics
Applications of genomics approaches to questions in plant ecology: Introduction to the new field of ecological genomics that investigates genes underlying ecologically important traits
Genomics of plant responses to environmental stress
Genomics of biofuels