No genome needed: synteny- based precision mapping

Mapping-by-sequencing, “SHOREmapping”, is greatly accelerating the identification of causal mutations.

Current whole-genome or transcriptome assemblies from next-generation sequencing data of non-model organisms, however, do not produce chromosome-length scaffolds. We have therefore developed a method that exploits synteny with a related genome for genetic mapping. As a proof of concept, we apply this method to Arabidopsis thaliana gene models ordered by synteny with the genome sequence of the distant relative Brassica rapa, which has a genome with several large scale rearrangements relative to A. thaliana. Our approach outlines an alternative roadmap for high-resolution genetic mapping in species that lack finished genome reference sequences or for which only RNA-seq assemblies are available.

See our paper in Plant Journal.