Impact of genomics approaches on plant genetics and physiology

Comprehensive analysis of genetic information in higher plants is under way for several plants of biological and agronomical importance. Among them, Arabidopsis thaliana, a member of Brassica family, and Oryza sativa (rice) have been chosen as model plants most suitable for genome analysis. Sequencing of the genome of A. thaliana was completed in December 2000, and rice genome sequencing is in progress. The accumulated genome sequences, together with the hundreds of thousands of ESTs from several tens of plant species, have drastically changed the strategy of plant genetics. By utilizing the information on the genome and gene structures, comprehensive approaches for genome-wide functional analysis of the genes, including transcriptome analysis using microarray systems and a comprehensive analysis of a large number of insertion mutant lines, have been widely adopted. As a consequence, a large quantity of information on both the structure and function of genes in these model plants has been accumulated. However, other plant species may have their own characteristics and advantages to study individual phenomena. Application of knowledge from the model plants to other plant species and vice versa through the common language, namely the genome information, should facilitate understanding of the genetic systems underlying a variety of biological phenomena. Introduction of this common language may not be very simple, especially in the case of complex pathways such as a process of cell-covering formation. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that genomics approaches are the most promising way to understand these processes.