Comparative structural genomics in the Brassicaceae family

A particular small size has made the Arabidopsis thaliana genome the best-studied genome of a higher plant. Comparative genetic mapping experiments have established colinearity of genomes for species of the Brassicaceae family. More recently physical mapping and sequencing experiments established conservation of gene order. Patterns of genome colinearity that have been discovered to date will be described. One of the prime goals of comparative genome studies is the exploitation of information that has been assembled for model species with small genomes for the analysis of related plants with complex genomes. Specifically, the prospects for correlating traits in the Brassica crops with Arabidopsis candidate genes will be discussed.