National BioResource Project of Japan III : DNA resource of Wheat

Kanako Kawaura, Kazuko Umeda, Yasunari Ogihara

Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University, Maioka-cho 641-12, Yokohama 244-0813, Japan

Corresponding Author: Yasunari Ogihara

E-mail: yogihara@yokohama-cu.ac.jp

The third phase of the National BioResource Project of Japan “Wheat” has been started in 2012. We, herein, summarize the activity of the first year of the third phase of NBRP-Wheat.  DNA resource team of “KOMUGI” has continuously collected, maintained and supplied for cDNA clones of common wheat. In total, 55 cDNA libraries were constructed with the RNAs from stressed tissues as well as various normal tissues. At present, 1,252,563 ESTs (expressed sequence tags) were collected from those cDNA libraries, in which 16,807 full-length cDNA sequences are included. BLAST search of those sequences can be applied from the “KOMUGI” site of National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan. By applying these cDNA sequence data, we constructed the Agilent oligo-DNA microarray harboring 38K gene probes. The wheat oligo DNA microarray is available from the Agilent Co. Ltd.

The plates containing E. coli were shared among four institutions, i.e., Kihara Institute for Biological Research, YCU, Kyoto University, NIG and RIKEN for backup after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.  

In 2012 seasonal activity, 54 clones requested from four institutions inside of Japan were supplied after DNA sequence check.

The work was supported by the National BioResource Project-Wheat from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.