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Science
Vol. 326 no. 5956 pp. 1112-1115
DOI: 10.1126/science.1178534
  • Report

The B73 Maize Genome: Complexity, Diversity, and Dynamics

  1. Richard K. Wilson7,33,
  1. 1Center for Plant Genomics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
  2. 2Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
  3. 3Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
  4. 4Center for Carbon Capturing Crops, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
  5. 5U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), North Atlantic Area, Robert Holley Center for Agriculture and Health, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
  6. 6Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.
  7. 7The Genome Center at Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA.
  8. 8Arizona Genomics Institute, School of Plant Sciences and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, BIO5 Institute for Collaborative Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
  9. 9Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
  10. 10Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
  11. 11School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
  12. 12Department of Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
  13. 13Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
  14. 14Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
  15. 15Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
  16. 16Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, CNRS, Perpignan, France.
  17. 17Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
  18. 18NimbleGen, Madison, WI 53711, USA.
  19. 19Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
  20. 20Department of Plant Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
  21. 21Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
  22. 22Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
  23. 23Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA.
  24. 24Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
  25. 25Departments of Mathematics, Biology, and Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
  26. 26Cornell University Computational Biology Service Unit, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
  27. 27Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
  28. 28Laboratory for Molecular and Computational Genomics, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
  29. 29BIO5 Institute for Collaborative Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
  30. 30Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
  31. 31Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
  32. 32Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.
  33. 33Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
  1. To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rwilson{at}wustl.edu

Abstract

We report an improved draft nucleotide sequence of the 2.3-gigabase genome of maize, an important crop plant and model for biological research. Over 32,000 genes were predicted, of which 99.8% were placed on reference chromosomes. Nearly 85% of the genome is composed of hundreds of families of transposable elements, dispersed nonuniformly across the genome. These were responsible for the capture and amplification of numerous gene fragments and affect the composition, sizes, and positions of centromeres. We also report on the correlation of methylation-poor regions with Mu transposon insertions and recombination, and copy number variants with insertions and/or deletions, as well as how uneven gene losses between duplicated regions were involved in returning an ancient allotetraploid to a genetically diploid state. These analyses inform and set the stage for further investigations to improve our understanding of the domestication and agricultural improvements of maize.