Genetic architecture of flowering time in maize as inferred from quantitative trait loci meta-analysis and synteny conservation with the rice genome.

Genetic architecture of flowering time in maize was addressed by synthesizing a total of 313 quantitative trait loci (QTL) available for this trait. These were analyzed first with an overview statistic that highlighted regions of key importance and then with a meta-analysis method that yielded a synthetic genetic model with 62 consensus QTL. Six of these displayed a major effect.

Large-scale analysis of gene expression: methods and application to the kidney.

Characterization of tissue-specific gene expression profiles, or transcriptomes, may serve two purposes: a) establishing relationships between cell transcriptomes and functions (i.e. molecular and physiological phenotypes) under physiological and pathophysiological conditions serves to elucidate gene functions, and b) determination of the totality of genes expressed in a cell seems a prerequisite for understanding cell functions, because the properties of proteins vary with their environment.

Renal transcriptomes: segmental analysis of differential expression.

Background/aims: Progress accomplished by complete genomes and cDNA-sequencing projects calls for methods that fully use these resources to study gene expression patterns in characterized cell populations. However, since the number of functional genes cannot be readily inferred from the genomic sequence, it is highly desirable to make use of methods enabling to study both known and unknown genes.

Methods: The method of serial analysis of gene expression provides short diagnostic cDNA tags without bias towards known genes.

Gene expression profiles in normal and Otx2-/- early gastrulating mouse embryos.

The mouse Otx2 gene is a homeobox transcription factor required as early as gastrulation for the proper development of the head. We compared gene expression profiles in wild-type and Otx2(-/-) 6.5 days postcoitum embryos by using a serial analysis of gene expression assay adapted to microdissected structures.

Serial microanalysis of renal transcriptomes.

Large-scale gene expression studies can now be routinely performed on macroamounts of cells, but it is unclear to which extent current methods are valuable for analyzing complex tissues. In the present study, we used the method of serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) for quantitative mRNA profiling in the mouse kidney. We first performed SAGE at the whole-kidney level by sequencing 12,000 mRNA tags.