University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Includes bibliographical references and index.

An Improved Method for Plant BAC Library Construction / Meizhong Luo and Rod A. Wing -- Constructing Gene-Enriched Plant Genomic Libraries Using Methylation Filtration Technology / Pablo D. Rabinowicz -- RescueMu Protocols for Maize Functional Genomics / Manisk N. Raizada -- Precious Cells Contain Precious Information: Strategies and Pitfalls in Expression Analysis from a Few Cells / Isabelle M. Henry and Dina F. Mandoli -- Combined ESTs from Plant-Microbe Interactions: Using CC Counting to Determine the Species of Origin / Edgar Huitema [and others] -- Computer Software to Find Genes in Plant Genomic DNA / Ramana V. Davuluri and Michael Q. Zhang -- Genomic Colinearity as a Tool for Plant Gene Isolation / Wusirika Ramakrishna and Jeffrey L. Bennetzen -- Using Natural Allelic Diversity to Evaluate Gene Function / Sherry R. Whitt and Edward S. Buckler -- Quantitative Trait Locus Analysis as a Gene Discovery Tool / Michael D. McMullen -- Transposon Tagging Using Activator (Ac) in Maize / Thomas P. Brutnell and Liza J. Conrad -- T-DNA Mutagenesis in Arabidopsis / Jose M. Alonso and Anna N. Stepanova -- Physical and Chemical Mutagenesis / Andrea Kodym and Roesnak Afza -- High-Throughput TILLING for Functional Genomics / Bradley J. Till [and others] -- Gene and Enhancer Traps for Gene Discovery / Marcela Rojas-Pierce and Patricia S. Springer -- High-Throughput TAIL-PCR as a Tool to Identify DNA Flanking Insertions / Tatjana Singer and Ellen Burke -- Custom Knock-Outs with Hairpin RNA-Mediated Gene Silencing / Susan Varskia Wesley [and others] -- Virus-Induced Gene Silencing / S.P. Dinesh-Kumar [and others] -- Exploring the Potential of Plant RNase P as a Functional Genomics Tool / Dileep K. Pulukkunat [and others] -- Maintaining Collections of Mutants for Plant Functional Genomics / Randy Scholl, Martin M. Sachs, and Doreen Ware -- Vector Construction for Gene Overexpression as a Tool to Elucidate Gene Function / Alan Lloyd -- 21 T-DNA Activation Tagging / Johan Memelink -- Expression Profiling Using cDNA Microarrays / Suling Zhao and Wesley B. Bruce -- Open Architecture Expression Profiling of Plant Transcriptomes and Gene Discovery Using GeneCalling� Technology / Oswald R. Crasta and Otto Folkerts -- Proteomics as a Functional Genomics Tool / Ulrike Mathesius [and others] -- Metabolite Profiling as a Functional Genomics Tool / Anusha P. Dias [and others] -- Growth Stage-Based Phenotypic Profiling of Plants / Susanne Kjemtrup [and others].

As more and more plant genomes are sequenced, plant researchers have been inundated with an avalanche of novel methodologies to identify the function of tens of thousands of plant genes. In Plant Functional Genomics, Erich Grotewold has assembled a team of leading plant scientists to describe in detail the most commonly used methods for investigating plant gene function in a wide variety of plants, during plant pathogen interactions, and even in algae. These readily reproducible protocols include computational, molecular, and genetic methodologies designed for both general and specific problems. Here the reader will learn how to identify genes in complex systems that have large genomes, few cells, and mixed cell systems. Readers will also learn the use of powerful computational and statistical tools to help predict gene function, either on the basis of comparative genomics, or from the analysis of complex genome sequences. Because establishing gene function relies on the identification of phenotypes, the authors expand the concept of phenotypes, including the use of multiple outputs as the ultimate phenotypic result of changes in gene activity. Numerous loss-of-function and gain-of-function techniques for discovering gene function are presented in step-by-step detail. Comprehensive and highly practical, Plant Functional Genomics offers plant biologists readily reproducible computational, molecular, and genetic protocols, powerful tools that will enable them, with little or no experience, successfully to investigate any gene function with the most recent methodologies.