Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY-2000

Lukens, Lewis N, St. Paul MN

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for 2000. The research and training plan is in the area of Integrated Plant Biology and is entitled "An Analysis of genetic architecture, gene expression, and phenotypic variation within resynthesized Brassica napus polyploids." The goal of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of polyploidization (fusion of two genomes into one) in flowering plants, via resynthesizing fifty lines of the natural polypoid Brassica napus from its diploid progenitors Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea. Changes in genomic architecture, gene expression, and phenotype between the diploid parents, the progeny of the resynthesized B. napus, and the fourth generation offspring of the resynthesized plants are being examined. These experiments will determine the nature of the changes within individual, resynthesized polyploid genomes and whether or not these changes are shared among independently derived polyploids. Such changes will be identified by comparisons of gene expression using Northern blots and DNA microarrays.