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The genetics of gene expression in barley

Reference	BB/C503097/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Michael Kearsey
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Zewei Luo
Institution	University of Birmingham
Department	Sch of Biosciences
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	156,433
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/02/2005
End date	31/01/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

We propose to examine the genetics of gene expression in barley. We will focus on understanding the architecture of variation in gene expression in three transcriptionally diverse barley tissues by performing a genome wide analysis of gene expression using a recently developed 23,000 unigene Affymetrix array and the individuals of an extensively mapped and phenotyped reference doubled haploid barley population. We have already performed a large Barley Development gene expression reference experiment (13 tissue samples in triplicate, 2 cultivars) and have confirmed that there is considerable variation in gene expression between both tissues from the same cultivar and comparable tissues from different barley cultivars (mean about 10% of the assayed transcriptome). Using the mapped markers, we will perform quantitative trait analysis of both simulated and observed abundances or patterns of gene expression using sophisticated statistical approaches. By exploiting gene sequence conservation and conserved synteny we will test the hypothesis that the genetics of gene expression is effective in identifying: 1). The genetic location of mapped and unmapped genes which are represented on the Affymetrix array; 2). Positional candidate transcriptional regulators which govern the expression of a large number of genes; 3). Co-ordinately regulated and functionally related gene networks. By comparison with previously mapped quantitative traits (eg. yield, various quality parameters, agronomic traits, stress related traits etc.) we will investigate whether any of the observed gene expression QTL (eQTL) represent effective surrogate phenotypes, which can be used as a platform to clone candidate regulatory genes controlling the expression of a functionally related gene network. For validation of potential candidate regulators, we will adopt a combination of Haplotype analysis in well characterised cultivated material (eg. in good vs. poor quality lines) and the identification of sequence specific mutations in our barley (dis)-TILLING population. We will explore the effect of genotype on the expression of the network by analysing gene expression in a pedigree genetically characterised at the regulatory locus, and survey sequence variation in the promoters of differentially expressed network genes. (Joint with BB/C510208/1)

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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