Support
Sponsoring BrachyTAG
Why?
- Plants underpin most of our food and energy sources. Understanding how plants work is critical and with a new plant model, a wild grass Brachypodium (closely related to wheat) we can take a big step forward in understanding the biology of temperate cereal crops such as wheat and barley as well as biomass grasses such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and elephant grass (Miscanthus giganteas). Brachypodium will also advance our understanding of wild grasses.
- The BrachyTAG project is part of the International Brachypodium Initiative (IBI) and is enabling the identification and tagging of key genes involved in aspects of plant development, reproduction, environmental adaptation, biomass and yield of cereals and grasses. This knowledge will enable scientists to unlock the potential of wheat and grasses for food and energy.
- The Brachypodium genome will have to be tagged more than 100,000 times to identify every gene and BrachyTAG will contribute to the development of this trans-national resource and partnership.
How?
- Governments, charities, industry or individuals can contribute to build the international BrachyTAG resource by philanthropic support.
- It costs £50 to produce a Brachypodium T-DNA plant and to make the seed and DNA sequence available to the world. This includes the following steps:
- To produce a Brachypodium plant containing a T-DNA tag (i.e. T-DNA line) and to collect seeds from this plant.
- To sequence the regions flanking the tag and to determine the position of this Flanking Sequence Tag (FST) in the Brachypodium plant genome sequence.
- To determine (if the information is available) which plant gene has been tagged.
- To store the Brachypodium seeds in a dedicated facility at the John Innes Centre for international distribution.
- To advertise and disseminate seed and gene resources to scientists worldwide via the BrachyTAG web site, online databases such as GenBank, online genome browsers such as Modelcrop, peer reviewed scientific publications and communications.
Example of an aquaporin gene tagged by the BrachyTAG program and displayed in the Modelcrop genome browser. Note: when using Modelcrop for the first time, agree with 'Terms & Conditions' then select the following tracks 'Gene predictions - All on' and 'Other features - FST JIC '.
The contribution of the sponsors of the BrachyTAG programme is acknowledged online and in scientific publications and communications. An advisory committee is being set up to ensure optimum governance, management and sustainability of the BrachyTAG programme and resources.
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