Genome sequencing: The greening of plant genomics

In the genomics world, plants are second-class citizens. Researchers have sequenced the DNA of hundreds of microbes and dozens of animals, yet they have deciphered the genomes of just three plants, Arabidopsis, rice, and poplar--four, if you count Chlamydomonas, an alga. At a 6 July workshop to evaluate the 10-year-old National Plant Genome Initiative (NPGI), experts in bioinformatics, plant breeding, and biotechnology called for more plant genomes to be sequenced and lamented the dearth of computational and analytical tools to evaluate genomes. Workshop participants also decried the genome initiative's lack of progress in bioinformatics. Funding agencies supported the sequencing of many animal species to help interpret the human genome.... "www.checkbiotech.org":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Genetics.aspx?infoId=15178]

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