Project Number: 1230-21000-051-08
Project Type: General Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 09, 2010
End Date: Aug 31, 2013

Objective:
The objective of this research is to analyze data obtained from 454 sequencing technologies (performed through an RSA with University of Illinois Biotechnology Center (UIBC) on several diverse nursery crops. This data will be used to develop molecular markers, understand taxonomic relationships and evolutionary history, and to mine for viruses of concern in ornamental plants.

Approach:
Sequencing data will be obtained from the UIBC 454-Titanium platform from several grass species (for comparative genomics), crapemyrtle, elm, redbud, hackberry, and ash (for marker development or mining for genes related to stress tolerance). In addition, data from at least one taxa that has a high likelihood of harboring viruses of concern (such as beautyberry), and data from a plant pathogenic fungus (Rhizoctonia) may be included. Students, postdocs, and or faculty at the Cooperators facility who have experience and expertise in bioinformatics and comparative genomics will help to analyze this data, as well as compare this data to sequence data acquired from other sources (GenBank, other sequencing projects).