Comparative structural genomics in the Brassicaceae family

A particular small size has made the Arabidopsis thaliana genome the best-s tudied genome of a higher plant. Comparative genetic mapping experiments ha ve established colinearity of genomes for species of the Brassicaceae famil y. More recently physical mapping and sequencing experiments established co nservation of gene order. Patterns of genome colinearity that have been dis covered to date will be described. One of the prime goals of comparative ge nome studies is the exploitation of information that has been assembled for model species with small genomes for the analysis of related plants with c omplex genomes. Specifically, the prospects for correlating traits in the B rassica crops with Arabidopsis candidate genes will be discussed. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.