various varieties of apples, cherries, peaches, blueberries and black raspberries.
Mockler’s lab is also sequencing the genomes of eight hazelnut varieties, a South American carnivorous plant known as Genlisea aurea, and duckweed, a tiny plant that looks like pond scum and may have potential as a source of biofuel. Meanwhile, Liston is sequencing the genome for milkweed, and Jaiswal, who helped create a database of plant genomes, is trying to find genes that control flowering time in rice and corn.
LYNN KETCHUM
Todd Mockler stands amid 500 servers at Oregon State University that analyze data to sequence genomes. The OSU professor was part of a team that sequenced the genome of a wild strawberry.
In addition to Mockler, the OSU part of the research was led by Pankaj Jaiswal, Aaron Liston, Sushma Naithani and Nahla Bassil, a plant geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who holds a courtesy appointment at OSU. Jaiswal’s lab assigned functions to about two-thirds of the strawberry’s genes. Liston compared the chromosomal locations of 389 genes that the strawberry shares with peaches and found support for the hypothesis that the rose family originally had nine chromosomes. Naithani’s lab predicted biochemical functions for various genes.
Liston and Bassil helped assemble the genome for the strawberry’s chloroplasts, an organelle that makes sugar and starches through photosynthesis.
The strawberry work is just the latest advance in a series of genome sequencing projects at OSU. In collaboration with experts in other states, Mockler’s lab is assembling the genome for the endangered snow leopard in a
conservation effort aimed at improving captive breeding programs in zoos and restoring its numbers. His lab is also working with Bassil to sequence the genomes of three more kinds of strawberries as well as
Mockler was part of a global team that sequenced the genome of the wild grass Brachypodium distachyon, which scientists hope will serve as a model for improving some grass and cereal crops. OSU is one of only two U.S. universities designated a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant institution. OSU is also Oregon’s only university designated in the Carnegie Foundation’s top tier for research institutions, garnering more than 60 percent of the total federal and private research funding in the Oregon University System. Its nearly 22,000 students come from all 50 states and more than 90 nations. OSU programs touch every county within Oregon, and its faculty teach and conduct research on issues of national and global importance.
I. PATON &ASSOCIATES LTD.
SPRING AUCTION Saturday April 16th
BIG
9:00 AM at the Chilliwack Heritage Park Fairgrounds
“ENTRIES WELCOME” FARM EQUIPMENT
AUCTION SERVICES
Ian L. PATON JR. 604-940-0852
ian@patonauctions.com www.patonauctions.com . 3706-88 Street Delta, BC V4K 3N3 British Columbia Berry Grower • Spring 2011 19
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