www.czu.cz ; www.usab-tm.ro ; www.raupp.info

The Agricultural Research Service has joined Cotton Incorporated (CI) and
Clemson University Genomics Institute (CUGI) today in launching the Cotton
Microsatellite Database online at: www.mainlab.clemson.edu/cmd. August
2005 by Jim Core.

Unlike other major crops, cotton did not have a publicly available
database for DNA markers. Lack of markers and maps has been a major limiting
factor in the development of DNA-based tools to identify important agronomic
traits and facilitate selection of plants based on these traits.

DNA markers are small pieces of DNA that vary in length, depending on the
plant's genetic make-up. When a specific marker is associated with a gene
governing resistance to a specific pest or disease, it can be used as a
diagnostic tool to identify plants with potential resistance.

In Stoneville, Miss., geneticist Jodi Scheffler, in the ARS Crop Genetics
and Production Research Unit, and molecular biologist Brian Scheffler, from
the agency's Mid-South Area Genomics Laboratory, teamed up with
grower-funded CI in Cary, N.C., and CUGI in South Carolina to develop a DNA
marker database for cotton.

CI funded the database with coordination from its vice president of
agricultural research, Roy Cantrell. Dorrie Main and co-workers at CUGI
developed the database. The Stoneville scientists are evaluating potential
DNA markers and working with CUGI to test the database.

To facilitate comparison of marker data from different research groups, a
standardized set of DNA from a range of cotton varieties and wild species is
being maintained by ARS geneticist John Yu in the Crop Germplasm Research
Unit at College Station, Texas. ARS geneticist Johnie Jenkins and colleagues
in the Genetics and Precision Agriculture Research Unit at Mississippi
State, Miss., have also contributed markers being tested at Stoneville.
Other ARS locations, public universities, research laboratories in France
and China, and cotton-breeding companies plan to contribute markers and
information to the database.

This is only the first step toward developing a DNA marker database and
creating a map of the cotton genome.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

[www.ars.usda.gov]

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