Genomics

My lab is involved with a multi-institutional project studying the Functional Genomics of Maize Endosperm Development. The goal of this project is to perform high throughput cloning of genes that are important for endosperm development. Genes of interest will be identified by forward genetics, screening for Mu transposon-induced mutations that cause visible defects in endosperm development. Novel technology developed in this project will then be used to rapidly isolate the gene that was disrupted to cause the mutant defect.

My lab's responsibilities include EST (expressed sequence tag) production, endosperm microarray development and aleurone mutant screening.

The project is led by Donald R. McCarty, University of Florida. Other participants include Karen E. Koch, L. Curtis Hannah and A. Mark Settles, also from the University of Florida, Joachim Messing, Rutgers University and Brian Larkins, University of Arizona.

 For more detailed information on this project and the roles of individual labs involved, please visit the project's main website.