Bactrop: A platform of genomic resources to study organization and evolution of tropical crop species [S04-3]

BAC libraries are essential tools for assisting genome organization and evolution. Given the rapid development of genomics projects on tropical crops, we have begun the creation of a platform of BAC library resources for a number of tropical species, called BACTROP. BAC libraries for 9 tropical plant species were constructed and characterised. Efforts are now focused on three main research axes: 1)comparative analysis between the genomes of three tropical monocots (banana, oil palm and coconut) and that of rice using highly conserved cDNA and genetically anchored RFLP probes; 2)characterise linkage disequilibrium patterns in the genome of perennial (coffee, rubber tree, cocoa) and annual crops (sorghum, sugarcane) with marked differences in their domestication and pollination strategies; 3)characterisation of genetically mapped resistance gene analogs co-segregating with QTLs for important agronomic traits in tropical perennial crop species (cocoa, rubber tree). To manage the approximately 4 million BAC clones of BACTROP a database called BACTROPDB is under development and will enable to keep track of screenings, replicas, and sequencing of BAC clones belonging to different BAC libraries. We acknowledge financial support to realise BACTROP from CIRAD-AMIS, Agropolis International, INIBAP, EMBRAPA, COCOP. (Texte intégral)