| Abstract | Fully sequenced genomes of model organisms and staple crops such as Aegilops tauschii, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brachypodium distachyon, Brassica rapa, Hordeum vulgare, Oryza sativa, Sorghum bicolor, Triticum aestivum, Triticum urartu and Zea mays provide a unique opportunity to visually compare their gene order conservation via orthology. The conservation in gene order provides information about gene function and interactions of proteins that are encoded by these genes. While gene order is conserved and well preserved at phylogenetic distances for closely related plant species, it is low or lost during evolution in distantly related species. A good understanding and visual perspective of gene content and gene order similarities and differences across plant species allows researchers and experimentalists to design breeding strategies that lead to resilient next generation crops (e.g. current GM crops), to nutritionally-enhanced foods (e.g. golden rice) or to pharmaceuticals synthesization (e.g. somatotropin in tobacco plants). |
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