title: Exploiting the Brachypodium Tool Box in cereal and grass research.
abstract: It is now a decade since Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) was suggested as a model species for temperate grasses and cereals. Since then transformation protocols, large expressed sequence tag (EST) databases, tools for forward and reverse genetic screens, highly refined cytogenetic probes, germplasm collections and, recently, a complete genome sequence have been generated. In this review, we will describe the current status of the Brachypodium Tool Box and how it is beginning to be applied to study a range of biological traits. Further, as genomic analysis of larger cereals and forage grasses genomes are becoming easier, we will re-evaluate Brachypodium as a model species. We suggest that there remains an urgent need to employ reverse genetic and functional genomic approaches to identify the functionality of key genetic elements, which could be employed subsequently in plant breeding programmes; and a requirement for a Pooideae reference genome to aid assembling large pooid genomes. Brachypodium is an ideal system for functional genomic studies, because of its easy growth requirements, small physical stature, and rapid life cycle, coupled with the resources offered by the Brachypodium Tool Box.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth, Wales SY23 3DA, UK.
authors.forename: Luis A J
authors.initials: LAJ
authors.lastname: Mur
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth, Wales SY23 3DA, UK.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allainguillaume
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, University of Zaragoza, High Polytechnic School of Huesca, Ctra. Cuarte km 1, ES-22071 Huesca, Spain.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Catalán
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Anatomy and Cytology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia, PL-40-032 Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hasterok
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth, Wales SY23 3DA, UK.
authors.forename: Glyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Anatomy and Cytology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia, PL-40-032 Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Karolina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lesniewska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth, Wales SY23 3DA, UK.
authors.forename: Ianto
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: USDA ARS Western Regional Research Center, Albany, CA 94710 USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vogel
mesh_terms: D058431:Brachypodium / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics*; D003582:Cytogenetics / Q000379:methods; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D018745:Genome, Plant; D023281:Genomics; D008954:Models, Biological; D006109:Poaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D012106:Research