The BIO5 Mission

Scientists from the University of Arizona led by Arizona Genomics
Institute director and BIO5 member Rod A. Wing and from collaborating institutions have
deciphered the complete genetic code of the maize plant for the first time.

The researchers, who have been collaborating for the past four years on
the National Science Foundation-funded Maize Genome Sequencing Project,

A team of academic, government and industry researchers has completed a first draft of the cassava (Manihot esculenta) genome. The project is an important first step in accelerating the pace of research on this subsistence crop and addressing some of the many limitations that face cassava farmers around the world. Cassava is a root crop that serves as the primary food source for more than 750 million people each day. Although it has many properties that make it an important food across much of Africa and Asia, it also has many limitations. Cassava has poor nutritional content and is susceptible to many pathogens, particularly in Africa, where one third of the continental harvest is lost each year to viral diseases. One of these, Cassava Brown Streak Disease, or CBSD, is currently the major threat to food security in some parts of Eastern Africa.
 
In response to the urgency of this threat, and building upon the newly available cassava genome sequence, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $1.3 million grant to UA researchers who will lead an international consortium to develop a genome variation database that will provide breeding tools to aid farmers in improving cassava, with a special focus on increased resistance to the CBSD virus. BIO5 member Steve Rounsley, associate professor in the School of Plant Sciences at the UA, will coordinate the project that includes partners at the Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), and 454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company.