Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
synthesis include improved water and nitrogen-use efficiencies. Thus, engineering
C
4
traits into C
3
crops is an attractive target for crop improvement. The lack of a
small, rapid cycling genetic model system to study C
4
photosynthesis, however, has
limited progress in dissecting the regulatory networks underlying the C
4
syndrome.
Setaria viridis
is a member of the Panicoideae clade and is a close relative of sev-
eral major feed, fuel, landscape and bio-energy grasses. It is a true diploid with a
relatively small genome of ~ 510 Mb. Its short stature, simple growth requirements,
and rapid life cycle will greatly facilitate genetic studies of the C
4
grasses. Impor-
tantly,
S. viridis
uses an NADP-malic enzyme subtype C
4
photosynthetic system to
fix carbon and therefore is a potentially powerful model system for dissecting C
4
photosynthesis.
Recent advances in technology and in the ability to acquire, store, and analyze
complex biological data sets have provided an unprecedented understanding of the
mechanisms regulating the development and responses of organisms to the envi-
ronment (Galbraith and Edwards
2010
) and will bring substantial benefits for hor-
ticulture. Microarrays provide an early example of the productive integration of
high-throughput technologies with biological inquiry. Proteomics provide a way
of characterizing biological processes and is an important adjunct to micro-array
approaches and DNA technology (Kumar and Yadav
2001
). Proteomic techniques
collect data for many proteins at once. They add rapidly to our knowledge of protein
expression, modification, localization, turnover and protein-protein interaction dur-
ing each stage of physiological change and disease. Because proteins are one step
closer to function than are genes, these studies frequently lead directly to biologi-
cal discoveries or hypotheses. The large-scale analysis of proteins is becoming an
increasingly important post-genomic approach to understand gene function. Three
major steps in proteome analysis are the separation of complex protein mixtures by
two-dimensional protein gel electrophoresis (2D), characterization of the separated
proteins by mass spectrometry (MS) and database searching. Protein interaction
maps provided by the yeast two hybrid (Y2H) system on a genome-wide scale are
being to assign functions to new proteins. Improvement in high-throughput tech-
niques in proteome analysis, such as the development of robotic automation for
recognizing and excision of protein spots from 2-DE gels, enzymatic digestion and
transferring the digested 2-DE gel spots to a mass spectrometry target for MS analy-
sis and generation of MPIs are now very much in vogue.
A central goal of post-genomic research is to assign a function to every predicted
gene (Schoner et al.
2007
). Because genes often cooperate in order to establish and
regulate cellular events the examination of a gene has also included the search for at
least a few interacting genes. This requires a strong hypothesis about possible inter-
action partners, which has often been derived from what was known about the gene
or protein beforehand. It is now possible to study gene function on a global scale,
monitoring entire genomes and proteomes at once. These systematic approaches
aim at considering all possible dependencies between genes or their products, there-
by exploring the interaction space at a systems scale. An example of this is seen
in the manner by which genetically modified crops are emerging as a key weapon
to fight the negative impact of abiotic stresses on agricultural production (Tuteja
