title: Analysis of tall fescue ESTs representing different abiotic stresses, tissue types and developmental stages.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) is a major cool season forage and turf grass species grown in the temperate regions of the world. In this paper we report the generation of a tall fescue expressed sequence tag (EST) database developed from nine cDNA libraries representing tissues from different plant organs, developmental stages, and abiotic stress factors. The results of inter-library and library-specific in silico expression analyses of these ESTs are also reported.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 41,516 ESTs were generated from nine cDNA libraries of tall fescue representing tissues from different plant organs, developmental stages, and abiotic stress conditions. The Festuca Gene Index (FaGI) has been established. To date, this represents the first publicly available tall fescue EST database. In silico gene expression studies using these ESTs were performed to understand stress responses in tall fescue. A large number of ESTs of known stress response gene were identified from stressed tissue libraries. These ESTs represent gene homologues of heat-shock and oxidative stress proteins, and various transcription factor protein families. Highly expressed ESTs representing genes of unknown functions were also identified in the stressed tissue libraries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  FaGI provides a useful resource for genomics studies of tall fescue and other closely related forage and turf grass species. Comparative genomic analyses between tall fescue and other grass species, including ryegrasses (Lolium sp.), meadow fescue (F. pratensis) and tetraploid fescue (F. arundinacea var glaucescens) will benefit from this database. These ESTs are an excellent resource for the development of simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) PCR-based molecular markers.
authors.affiliation: Forage Improvement Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, 2510 Sam Noble Parkway, Ardmore, OK 73402, USA. mian.3@osu.edu
authors.forename: M A Rouf
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mian
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zeng-Yu
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ji-Yi
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chekhovskiy
authors.forename: Xinbin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Chunhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Foo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Xuechun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Angela D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Town
authors.forename: Gregory D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: May
mesh_terms: D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D035264:Flowers / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D015723:Gene Library; D006358:Hot Temperature; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000378:metabolism; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000378:metabolism; D006109:Poaceae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D036226:Seedlings / Q000378:metabolism; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D010940:Plant Proteins; D014867:Water