Metaphase (in mitosis)
|
 |
The Maya,
a people created from maize, as described in the Popul Vuj:
"the making, the modeling of our first mother-father,
with yellow corn, white corn alone for the flesh,
food alone for the human legs and arms, for our first fathers, the four human work |
This site is meant primarily to distribute information generated from a NSF Plant Genome Award to study maize centromeres. In addition we hope to highlight recent literature from other groups and provide a general explanation of the current state of centromere biology. We assume a basic understanding centromeres (nice basic explanation), as well as the concept of epigenetics, i.e. sequence independent DNA function (nice site on epigenetics).
At the start of 2005, we are undoubtedly on the verge of an explosion of information about plant centromeres. There are currently many more laboratories interested in plant centromeres than there were 5 years ago, and a burst of interest in centromeres in general, spurred by recent breakthroughs in S. pombe and the success of human artificial chromosomes. Summaries of some of this work can be found at our section on Results and Publications from Other Groups.
In plants, interest has turned to centromeres as the unsequenced 'last frontier' of the genome as well as their status as the most epigenetic of all domains. We aim to demystify both of these issues, providing extensive new sequence and the results from a series of experiments designed to better understand - and control - the epigenetic identity of centromeres. The ultimate goal of this work is to provide a public road map for how to clone and manipulate key centromeric DNAs, reintroduce them into plants, and utilize them to drive plant artificial chromosomes. These are also the aims of several groups working with Arabidopsis, soybean, and rice. Our emphasis will be on maize, the most important food crop in the Americas. |
 |
|
|
