Rice has been chosen as a model cereal for functional genomics by the international scientific community because the ease with which it can be transformed, its well understood genetics with detailed genome physical maps, and dense molecular markers. In addition, there is great similarities in gene sequence, gene structure, gene order, and gene function among all the cereals and grasses. Genes identified in rice as being important will also be important in other cereals and any understanding of rice genes is directly applicable to the genes of other cereals. This book details rice functional genomics. It takes a multi-pronged genome-wide approach using structural similarities, expression profiles, and mutant phenotypes. Coverage includes the current status of genome sequencing and annotation, various tools, and resources being developed worldwide in the form of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), full-length cDNA, gene expression profiles and gene tagging.
Narayana M. Upadhyaya is currently a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, Australia and leads the group working on Rice Functional Genomics. Previously, he pioneered research into the sequencing of the Rice Ragged Stunt Oryzavirus (RRSV) genome and produced RRSV genome-based synthetic resistance gene constructs while working on a Rockefeller Foundation-funded Rice Biotechnology project (1990-1997) which involved international collaboration. He has been the principal investigator in the bilateral science and technology collaborative research with China (1997-2000). He was instrumental in developing and setting up the rice transformation facility at CSIRO Plant Industry not only for RRSV research but also for other research projects where rice has been used as a model system. He has developed the T-DNA double right border (DRB) vector technology for generating selectable marker-free (SMF) transgenic plants. Since then he has developed a research project on "Rice Functional Genomics" (funded by Australia’s RIRDC and the NSW Centre for Agricultural Genomics) aimed at determining the function of rice genes using an insertional mutagenesis approach. The tools and resources being developed in the group are internationally competitive and as a result CSIRO Plant Industry has become an active member of the International Rice Functional Genomics Consortium. Dr. Upadhyaya has 50 refereed papers, 11 invited presentations and over 50 conference presentations to his credit.
