Le séquençage des génomes de plantes : Vers une nouvelle révolution en biologie végétale

Abstract

Recent speeding up in the sequencing of plant genomes has resulted in the development of comparative genomics. Applying this strategy makes it possible to both facilitate and speed up the cloning and characterisation of genes of interest in many crop species and to better understand evolution and domestication processes. Comparative sequencing has also revealed that genomes have been repeatedly invaded by transposable elements which contribute to modifying gene expression and genome size. The power of comparative genomics in isolating new genes and in revealing genetic diversity is illustrated. Finally the perspectives and challenges opened up by new very high throughput sequencing methods are discussed.