Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 87

An organism's complete set of DNA is called its genome. The concept of genomics began with the successful sequencing of the genomes of a virus and a mitochondrion by Fred Sanger and his colleagues starting in the 1970s. Previously, researchers were limited to understanding plant structure and function piecemeal (gene‐by‐gene). With the advances in technology, whole genomes of certain species have been sequenced, thereby making all the genes they contain accessible to researchers. Because of the cost of such undertakings, whole genome sequences have so far been limited to the so‐called model organisms, including Arabidopsis, rice, and corn. Through comparative genome analysis, researchers seek to establish correspondence between genes or other genomic features in different organisms, without the need to have whole genome maps of all organisms. In sum, the goal of plant genomics is to understand the genetic and molecular basis of all the relevant biological processes that pertain to a plant species, so that they can be exploited more effectively and efficiently for improving the species. Genomics is hence important in modern plant breeding efforts. Two of the major tools employed in genomics research are microarrays and bioinformatics.