Genaissance And Monsanto Company Team Up With The USDA To Map Soybean Genome
An agreement between Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Monsanto Company and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of agriculture (USDA), is expected to provide U.S. soybean plant breeders with new technology for more accurate and efficient plant breeding research.
The project's intent is to map single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA markers in soybeans, creating a detailed molecular genetic map of the soybean that includes a large number of SNP DNA markers along with pre-existing SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers. In addition, all of the map position information and use of soybean SNP markers covered by the agreement will be freely available to all U.S. soy breeders and geneticists, creating the first publicly available map of its kind.
A SNP is a specific location along a chromosome where there is a variation in the genetic sequence. This variation can be used as a genetic marker. Scientists often use genetic markers as a tag to identify the specific location of a genetic trait on a chromosome. By tagging the desired trait, plant breeders can breed plants more efficiently and more accurately.
The collaborators plan to make the information available in Soybase, the USDA Soybean Genome Database, and dbSNP, the National Center for Biotechnology Information SNP database, as well as publish the information in scientific journals so plant breeders have access to the important data.
ARS scientists in Beltsville, Maryland, discovered the soybean SNPs and saw value for public researchers in having the SNPs mapped. As part of the agreement, Monsanto will provide funding to support the mapping, which Genaissance will perform, given its expertise as a SNP genotyping services provider.
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