Frontiers in Plant Science (Sep 2014)

Genomic dissection of the seed

  • Mark Findlay Belmonte

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2014.00464
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

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Seeds play an integral role in the global food supply and account for more than 70% of the calories that we consume on a daily basis. To meet the demands of an increasing population, scientists are turning to seed genomics research to find new and innovative ways to increase food production. Seed genomics is evolving rapidly, and the information produced from seed genomics research has exploded over the past two decades. Advances in modern sequencing strategies that profile every molecule in every cell, tissue and organ of model and the emergence of new model systems has provided the tools necessary to understand all of the biological processes underlying seed development. Despite these advances, the analyses and mining of existing seed genomics data remain a monumental task for plant biologists. This review summarizes seed region and subregion genomic data that are currently available for existing and emerging oilseed models. We provide insight into the development of tools on how to analyze large-scale datasets.

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