Gramene and SorghumBase Represented at the 2024 Maize Genetics Meeting in Raleigh, NC, Feb 29 to Mar 3

The 66th Annual Maize Genetics Meeting will be held from February 29 – March 3, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. A Gramene workshop will be held on Thursday, February 29th from 3:00 – 4:00 PM in room 304.  During this workshop, it will be demonstrated how to query the available data at Gramene through our versatile search interface to help users search, interpret and explore public data through gene-focused views of genomic context, phylogenetic trees, gene expression profiles, pathways, and cross-referenced resources. The database provides agricultural researchers and plant breeders with valuable biological information on genomes and plant pathways of numerous crops and model species – including maize – thus enabling powerful comparisons across species. Molecular biologists, geneticists, and genomicists wiIl find value in the expansive phylogenetic trees and incorporated homology views and information for genes and gene families of interest. 

Janeen Braynen, a member of the Ware Lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, will be giving the talk “Decoding nitrogen use efficiency in maize and sorghum: Insights from comparative gene regulatory networks for sustainable agriculture,” during session 6 “The Nitrogen Conundrum, at 8:20 AM on Saturday, March 2nd. Dr. Braynen will present recent research in which she developed a maize-specific Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) that includes 1,625 Protein-DNA Interactions (PDIs) involving 70 promoters and 301 transcription factors. She will compare this GRN to an existing Arabidopsis GRN and discuss findings from sorghum by overlaying transcriptome datasets onto the GRNs for both maize and sorghum. Her research offers insights into the complex regulatory networks governing nitrogen used efficiency in  maize and sorghum, enhancing our understanding of plant genetics and opening new avenues for advancements in crop improvement and agricultural research.

Additionally look for us during the poster sessions

  • Gramene PanMaize: One-stop pan-genome browser for exploring the rich genetic diversity in maize (#154 – Computational and Large-Scale Biology)
  • Swift pan-genomic methods for comprehensive genome annotation in maize genomes (#168 – Computational and Large-Scale Biology) 
  • Transcriptomic Profiles of Developing Meristems Across Sorghum Accessions Reveal Nuanced Regulatory Pathways Towards Panicle Morphology (#120 – Cell and Developmental Biology)
  • Gramene 2024: A comparative resource on plant reference genomes, pan-genomes and pathways (#P304 – Evolution and Population Genetics)