Orion Genomics LLC announced today that it has successfully applied its breakthrough GeneThresher(TM) technology to canola (Brassica napus). GeneThresher sequencing is a new gene discovery tool that enables the sequencing of genes within a plant genome without sequencing the repetitive content.

“Canola is one of the world’s leading oilseed crops, but has a large and complex genome that confounds conventional analysis,” says Dr. Robert A. Martienssen, a founder of Orion Genomics and previous chair (1999) of the international genome initiative for Arabidopsis—a model plant to which canola is closely related. 

“The canola genome is ten times larger than Arabidopsis, making it intractable to a similar direct sequencing approach,” says Martienssen. “Orion Genomics’ results indicate that GeneThresher technology renders gene discovery in canola more efficient than in Arabidopsis, and will enable comparative analysis of these two genomes.

“This is an important demonstration of the application of this technology to all dicot crop genomes,” adds Martienssen. “Furthermore, the close similarity of gene sequences in Arabidopsis and Brassica will help find genes in both genome sequences, greatly enhancing their value.”

Dr. Richard K. Wilson, Orion Genomics’ Chief Executive Officer, says, “We are pleased to have  now conclusively demonstrated the effectiveness of the GeneThresher technology in both  monocot and dicot genomes.

“This new technology makes comprehensive genomics a cost-effective strategy for improved crop breeding and agricultural product development,” adds Wilson. “In conjunction with previously announced corn gene discovery results, these data add to Orion Genomics’ growing Plant KnowledgeBase(TM). 

Wilson says the genomes of many complex organisms—particularly the major agricultural crop species—represent significant opportunities for product discovery. “But many of these important genomes have been out of reach of even the largest product discovery programs due to the enormous costs involved in ‘whole genome’ sequencing—searching for a relatively small proportion of functional genes scattered among a large proportion of repetitive, non-coding or ‘junk’ DNA,” adds Wilson. 

Wilson says that the expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing approach used by many  companies avoids this non-coding DNA, but suffers from other limitations. “Many potentially important genes are under-represented or absent in the cDNA libraries used in EST approaches,” he notes. “Further, regulatory regions are not represented at all.”

Recently, researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) showed that the bulk of the repetitive, intergenic, non-coding DNA in corn is methylated, and therefore distinguishable from genes. Dr.  Robert A. Martienssen, Dr. W. Richard McCombie and Dr. Pablo Rabinowicz are the CSHL scientists who invented the GeneThresher technology. They have demonstrated that much of this methylated, non-coding DNA can be eliminated by “filter cloning” genomic libraries in a series of engineered bacterial strains. These results were published in the November 1, 1999 issue of the journal Nature Genetics. 

Orion Genomics, LLC was founded in 1998 and holds the exclusive, worldwide commercial rights to the GeneThresher technology. Orion Genomics engages in the discovery and development of gene-based agricultural products, in collaboration with agricultural companies and in its own proprietary programs.  

Company news release
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