Young Lab at the University of Minnesota Research

About Our Research:

Our research focuses on the  evolution of plant genomes, with a special emphasis on the disease resistance genes in legumes. We are characterizing the genomes of soybean and a model legume known as Medicago truncatula using the tools of DNA sequencing and bioinformatics. Currently, much of our effort is concentrated on the sequencing of the Medicago genome, a project that is coordinated in our lab and involves the efforts of hundreds of scientists in the U.S. and Europe. We are expanding this work to create a Medicago "Hapmap", which will enable high resolution mapping of important biological traits, including legume-rhizobium symbiosis responsible for nitrogen fixation. The outcome of these projects, a high quality genome sequence and genome-wide association mapping tool for this important model legume, will be an especially valuable resource for plant researchers worldwide. Using a range of bioinformatic and genomic tools, we target genome regions rich in plant-microbe interactions in order to learn more about their molecular diversity and evolutionary history. This information will be useful in basic research, helping to reveal the mechanisms that plants use to defend themselves, and in applied research, by providing breeders with better tools for creating improved crop varieties.

Research Areas:

• Medicago Hapmap: Platform for genome-wide association mapping (GWAM) of quantitative traits, including symbiosis
  
• Sequencing the genome of the model legume, Medicago truncatula
• Bioinformatic analysis of the Medicago genome sequence
  
• Mapping and cloning of plant disease resistance genes, with a special emphasis on soybean and Medicago
• Characterizing the molecular evolution of plant disease resistance genes
• Developing resources for positional gene cloning in M. truncatula and soybean
• Marker-assisted plant breeding for improved disease resistance in soybean
  

Resources Available:

• Primary project website and database for the Medicago genome sequencing initiative
  
• Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) genetic markers in Medicago
• BAC clone libraries suitable for positional gene cloning in soybean
• BAC clone contigs in soybean corresponding to anchored and mapped RFLP (restriction fragement length polymorphism) markers
• BAC clones and corresponding physical maps for dozens of disease resistance genes homologs of soybean.
• Legacy RFLP clones derived from Vigna (mungbeand and cowpea) suitable for marker-assisted selection and genome mapping throughout legumes.
• Near-isogenic lines (NILs) of soybean differing in genes for resistance to Heterodera glycines (soybean cyst nematode).
• Protocols for plant RFLPs, SSRs, BACs, and marker-assisted breeding.
• Software tools for visualizing and analyzing gene and genome duplications and for characterizing orthologs and paralogs within gene families, developed by former postdoctoral fellow, Steve Cannon.
• Software tools for visualizing and analyzing plant alternative transcripts, developed by former postdoctoral fellow, Bing-Bing Wang.
  

© 2009 Nevin Dale Young and the Regents of the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.