Comparative Genomics for Exploring New Genes and Traits for Crop Improvement

Abstract

Comparative genomics has brought a paradigm shift in our understanding of the evolutionary relationships among organisms and helped in elucidating the functions of newly discovered genes. With copious amount of information regarding plant genomic sequences being generated, it has become imperative to store such information in a manner where it is easy to retrieve and analyse. Aided with the tools of bioinformatics, comparative genomics approach is now being utilised for studying evolution of gene families and transposable elements in plants, identification of functional regions in their genomes, genetic basis of phenotypic variation and looking for DNA markers associated with desirable phenotype for breeding. This chapter will discuss the need of comparative genomics in crop improvement and the various online plant genomic databases available to do so.