AUSTRALIA—GERMANY WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY
The Shine Dome, 13-17 March 2006
Rice Gene Machine as a resource for functional genomics — an overview and challenges of genotyping and phenotyping
by Dr Narayana Upadhyaya, CSIRO Plant Industry
Now that the Arabidopsis and rice genomes are sequenced, the international focus is on identifying specific functions of the predicted 30,000 plant genes. Isolating mutants of each gene and studying their effects on the plant is one way to determine gene function. We and research groups worldwide are producing large numbers of insertional mutant lines (Rice Gene Machine) and collaborating in this resource development and utilisation. The need for a high throughput and accurate visual phenotyping of various characteristics such as seedling vigour, plant architecture, flowering, sterility and seed characteristics will be discussed. Automated systems for non-destructive and destructive sampling and analyses will be of great use in custom phenotyping.
