News

The Gramene team recently discovered a bug in our SNP Query tool that returned incorrect allele values for a given genomic range. We have fixed this tool and regret any errors it may have introduced into our users' downstream analysis.

A draft genome sequence of the Castor bean (Ricinus communis) was published on 22 August 2010 in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Besides many features, they discovered that many of the genes involved in oil synthesis are single copy genes.

Did you know that the International Rice Research Institute has a Flickr account where you can find lots of fantastic photos of rice and their work?

An international team of researchers published the Apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) genome in the Journal Nature Genetics on August 29, 2010. (Velasco et al 2010). This is the first report of a plant genome sequencing from a member of the Rosaceae taxonomic family. The genome putatively contains about 57,000 genes.

Members of the Gramene team will be present at the Genome Informatics meeting next week in Hinxton, UK. We will be presenting several posters related to Gramene, the Maize Sequence website, and classifying and visualizing genome wide association study data in the Arabidopsis 2010 project.

We would like to bring attention to the Gramene tutorials at OpenHelix. Gramene provides scholarships to under-represented groups in science, and we encourage you to apply.

The 8th International Symposium on Rice Functional Genomics will be held October 18-20, 2010, in Bento Gonçalves, Brazil. In addition to the regular proceedings, there will also be an I-OMAP workshop with a great opportunity to meet other researchers in rice biology.

Plant Ontology and Gramene conducted a Gene Annotation Workshop at the ASPB 2010 conference in Montreal. It was well attended and participants had the opportunity to do hands on annotation exercises using plant and gene ontologies. Presentations from representatives from TAIR, BAR and MaizeGDB introduced the respective databases and highlighted their annotation efforts. Approximately 40 scientists attended the workshop, and 14 of the participants received travel awards from Gramene.

A two-year postdoctoral position is available immediately at Cornell University in the labs of Leon Kochian (Dept of Plant Biology & USDA-ARS Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health) and Susan McCouch (Dept.

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT), a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, currently has openings for a research fellow, research technician, and post-doctoral positions in genomics and bioinformatics at their headquarters in Hyderabad, India. For more information, please contact Dr. Rajeev K. Varshney.