The National BioResource Project (NBRP) Lotus and Glycine in Japan

Abstract

The objective of the National BioResource Project (NBRP) in Japan is to collect, conserve and distribute biological materials for life sciences research. The project consists of twenty-eight bioresources, including animal, plant, microorganism and DNA resources. NBRP Lotus and Glycine aims to support the development of legume research through the collection, conservation, and distribution of these bioresources. Lotus japonicus is a perennial legume that grows naturally throughout Japan and is widely used as a model plant for legumes because of such advantages as its small genome size and short life cycle. Soybean (Glycine max) has been cultivated as an important crop since ancient times, and numerous research programs have generated a large amount of basic research information and valuable bioresources for this crop. We have also developed a “LegumeBase” a specialized database for the genera Lotus and Glycine, and are maintaining this database as a part of the NBRP. In this paper we will provide an overview of the resources available from the NBRP Lotus and Glycine database site, called “LegumeBase”.

Functional genetic analysis of <I>Arabidopsis thaliana SYNC1</I> in <I>Lotus corniculatus</I> super-growing roots using the FOX gene-hunting system

“…In this study, we have utilized similar FOX-SR FSL#121 plants, derived from the previous study of Himuro et al (2011), which is currently part of the NBRP core collection (Hashiguchi et al 2012). FSL#121 expresses SYNC1, an asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase that catalyzes the synthesis of asparagi-nyl-tRNA during translation (Peeters et al 2000).…”

Naturally occurring diversity helps to reveal genes of adaptive importance in legumes

“…First, biparental populations have been used for QTL mapping of agronomic traits, host specificity, and nitrogen fixation efficiency using the three central experimental genotypes MG-20, Gifu and L. burtii (Gondo et al, 2007 ; Sandal et al, 2012 ; Tominaga et al, 2012 ), and diversity information has been exploited for evaluation the impact of Nod factor perception on rhizobium host range (Radutoiu et al, 2007 ; Bek et al, 2010 ). Second, a collection of ~200 L. japonicus accessions is managed and distributed by the Japanese National Bioresource Program (Hashiguchi et al, 2012 ). Phenotypic characterization has been carried out for some of these accessions (Kai et al, 2010 ) and so far 130 of them have been re-sequenced to facilitate GWAS analysis (Sato and Andersen, unpublished).…”

Achievement, Challenge and Future Perspective of BAC Library Technology with a Focus on its Application to Soybean Genomics Researches

“…Since the emergence of the next generations of sequencing technology, BAC library technology has faced strong challenge since construction, screening and application of BAC libraries are time and labor intensive [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. Recent third-generation sequencing technology, which can yield longer multi kilo base reads and is getting popular in various genomic researches, further despoils the the applications of BAC library technology.…”