Medicago Truncatula Sequencing Consortium
The Medicago truncatula Sequencing Consortium is an international partnership of research laboratories that is decoding the genome sequence of Medicago truncatula, a model legume species. Sequencing the Medicago truncatula genome is expected to facilitate genomics research in legumes, especially the biology of symbiosis because Medicago truncatula and its symbiotic partner, Sinorhizobium meliloti, are popular models for symbiosis research.
Sequencing in Medicago truncatula is taking place at the University of Oklahoma (US), J. Craig Venter Institute (US), Genoscope (France), and Sanger Centre (UK). Partner institutions include the University of Minnesota (US), University of California-Davis (US), the National Center for Genomic Resources (NCGR) (US), John Innes Centre (UK), Institut National de Recherche Agronomique (France), Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS) (Germany), Wageningen University (Netherlands), and Ghent University (Belgium). The Medicago truncatula Sequencing Consortium began in 2001 with a seed grant from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. In 2003, the National Science Foundation and the European Union 6th Framework Programme began providing most of the funding. As of 2009, 84% of the genome assembly has been completed.
Sequencing in Medicago truncatula is based on bacterial artificial chromosomes. This is the same approach used to sequence the genomes of humans, the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. The technique is slower, but typically more accurate, than the now more common approach known as Shotgun sequencing.
A parallel group known as the International Medicago Gene Annotation Group (IMGAG) is responsible for identifying and describing putative gene sequences within the genome sequence.
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