Generalities
Brachypodium distachyon belongs to the Poaceae family, such as wheat, barley, oats, maize, rice, rye, sorghum and millet. It is an annual wild grass endemic to the Mediterranean and Middle East regions.
Cultivated poaceae are one of the most important resources in human nutrition. The continuous improvement of their cultivation is a major challenge, both to feed the world’s population, and for the development of renewable energies through the production of new fuels (bioethanol). It provides an excellent model for temperate grass research, in particular because of its small diploid genome (about 270 million bp), small size, autogamy, short life cycle, simple growing conditions and efficient transformation system. Its phylogenetic position as well as the publication of its genome stregthens this model as a tool for functional genomics, and also allows comparative analyses of the genome of other important cultivated grass species.
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- Brachypodium distachyon @EFOR
- Name : Brachypodium distachyon
- Phylogenetic classification: plant (Magnioliophyta division) of the Poaceas family. The Brachypodium tribe is within the subfamily Pooideae, the sister group of four tribes of herbs of major importance in nutrition: the Triticeae (including wheat), Aveneae (including oats), Poeae and Bromeae.
- Genome sequencing complete (2010)
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Genome size : 272 millions bp on 5 pairs of chromosomes (note: genome of small size for a grass species).
Number of genes : 25 532 loci coding proteins.
Reproduction
Brachypodium distachyon is autogamous (though it can be cross-pollinated) and has a short annual life cycle. The generation time is about 8 weeks. Growth conditions are not very demanding. The small size of the accessions is another advantage for the crop yield as small space can support a large number of specimens.
Tools
- Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated plant transformation, or bombardment-mediated plant transformation
- TILLING
- RNAi
- Recombinant Inbred Lines, QTL
- Genetic marker collections (including SSR -simple sequence repeats-)
- BAC libraries
- Seed collections (« germplasm »)
- Mutant collections
- Microarrays, cDNA, EST collections
Databases
Infrastructures
- Unité BIA - 1268 Biopolymères Interactions Assemblages Equipe Paroi Végétale et Polymères Pariétaux (PVPP)
- https://www6.angers-nantes.inrae.fr/bia_eng/Home/Staff-members/S/SIBOUT-Richard
- Nantes
- Laboratoire de recherche en sciences végétales (LRSV)
- http://www.lrsv.ups-tlse.fr/
- Toulouse
- Equipe biologie cellulaire et régénération (Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin)
- https://www-ijpb.versailles.inra.fr/fr/bc/bc_equipes.htm
- Versailles
- Equipe Pascal RATET- Institut des Sciences des Plantes de Paris Saclay, IPS2
- http://ips2.u-psud.fr/fr/recherche/pmin-departement-interactions-plantes-micro-organismes-et-reseaux/genetsym-controle-genetique-de-la-symbiose/symbiose-et-immunite.html
- Gif-sur-Yvette
- Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes (IBMP)
- http://www.ibmp.cnrs.fr/
- Strasbourg
Experts
- Richard SIBOUT
- richard.sibout@inrae.fr
- Unité BIA-UR1268, INRAE, site de la Géraudière, Nantes, France
Bibliography
- Books
Genetics and Genomics of Brachypodium / Editors: Vogel, John P. (Ed.)
- Articles
“Genome sequencing and analysis of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon”.
Nature. 2010 Feb 11;463(7282):763-8. doi: 10.1038/nature08747.
“Brachypodium: a promising hub between model species and cereals”.
J Exp Bot. 2014 Oct;65(19):5683-96. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eru376.
“Extensive gene content variation in the Brachypodium distachyon pan-genome correlates with population structure”.
Nat Commun. 2017 Dec 19;8(1):2184. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-02292-8.
“Expression atlas and comparative coexpression network analyses reveal important genes involved in the formation of lignified cell wall in Brachypodium distachyon”.
New Phytol. 2017 Aug;215(3):1009-1025. doi: 10.1111/nph.14635.
- Websites