Santa Clara, California, USA
January 14, 2011
Affymetrix rice consortium partners' research may lead to improving rice production
Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) today announced at the Plant and Animal Genome XIX Conference (PAG) that it launched the GeneChip(R) Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array, the first high-density rice genotyping array. This array was designed in collaboration with a worldwide community of rice researchers to improve the rice industry's production confidence by providing a low-cost, high-quality method for reliably identifying rice varietals and examining the genetic inheritance of important agricultural traits.
The GeneChip Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array was developed in collaboration with Dr. Susan D. McCouch, Professor in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University, as well as a team of scientists from world-renowned rice research institutes and private sector partners. The array features more than 44,000 SNPs and detects common genetic variants within and between the major subpopulations of O. sativa, including indica, aus, tropical japonica, temperate japonica, and aromatic, or Group V.
"Our aim was to design an array dense enough to conduct genome-wide association mapping studies and with the power to find genes or loci underlying most phenotypes," said Dr. McCouch. "The beauty of Affymetrix' Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array is that it enables us to explore quality and performance characteristics of rice varieties all over the world, many of which are not well known. Now their genomes are accessible." Dr. McCouch will be presenting her work at the PAG conference in San Diego.
With the Rice 44K SNP Genotyping Array, rice breeders for the first time will be able to efficiently and cost-effectively classify their germplasm as well as track and fingerprint varieties for improved seed management, property protection, and patents. To provide the rice community with access to this powerful technology, Affymetrix has designated service providers who offer quality assurance, quick turnaround time, affordable prices, and confidentiality to researchers.
"We are pleased to have DNA Landmarks and Expression Analysis on board as our service providers to conduct this important service for the rice research community worldwide," said Andy Last, Chief Commercial Officer at Affymetrix. "This will quicken the discovery of natural variation and quality characteristics impacting rice production, which experts say must increase to keep pace with the world's growing population."
The rice community's project team, led by Dr. McCouch, also included groups from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Arkansas, Stanford University's Department of Genetics in Stanford, California, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Philippines. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation's Plant Genome Research Program (Award #0606461).
More information about the array content, design strategy, and experimental data can be found at www.ricediversity.org or www.gramene.org.
For information about genotyping service for the array, contact Charles Pick of DNA Landmarks at charles.pick@dnalandmarks.ca, Carolyn Wait of Expression Analysis at cwait@expressionanalysis.com, or call Affymetrix customer service at 1-888-362-2447.
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