Reference "An atlas of gene expression from seed to seed through barley development"

Reference ID

37697

Title

An atlas of gene expression from seed to seed through barley development

Source

Funct Integr Genomics, 2006, vol. 6, pp. 202-211

Authors (18)

Druka-A	Muehlbauer-G	Druka-I	Caldo-R	Baumann-U
Rostoks-N	Schreiber-A	Wise-R	Close-T	Kleinhofs-A
Graner-A	Schulman-A	Langridge-P	Sato-K	Hayes-P
McNicol-J	Marshall-D	Waugh-R

Abstract

Assaying relative and absolute levels of gene expression in a diverse series of
tissues is a central step in the process of characterizing gene function and a
necessary component of almost all publications describing individual genes or
gene family members. However, throughout the literature, such studies lack
consistency in genotype, tissues analyzed, and growth conditions applied, and,
as a result, the body of information that is currently assembled is fragmented
and difficult to compare between different studies. The development of a
comprehensive platform for assaying gene expression that is available to the
entire research community provides a major opportunity to assess whole
biological systems in a single experiment. It also integrates detailed knowledge
and information on individual genes into a unified framework that provides both
context and resource to explore their contributions in a broader biological
system. We have established a data set that describes the expression of 21,439
barley genes in 15 tissues sampled throughout the development of the barley cv.
Morex grown under highly controlled conditions. Rather than attempting to
address a specific biological question, our experiment was designed to provide a
reference gene expression data set for barley researchers; a gene expression
atlas and a comparative data set for those investigating genes or regulatory
networks in other plant species. In this paper we describe the tissues sampled
and their transcriptomes, and provide summary information on genes that are
either specifically expressed in certain tissues or show correlated expression
patterns across all 15 tissue samples. Using specific examples and an online
tutorial, we describe how the data set can be interrogated for patterns and
levels of barley gene expression and how the resulting information can be used
to generate and/or test specific biological hypotheses.