Sequencing, Assembly, and Annotation of Maize B104, a Maize Transformation Resource

Maize transformation is complicated. Most lines are not readily cultured and transformed, making the germplasm available for genome engineering extremely limited. Developing a better understanding of the genomic regions responsible for differences in culturability and transformability would be a good start toward enabling the development of new transformation strategies.

B104 was derived from the same populations as the B73 reference.  The genomes are very similar (93% similar as defined by Romay et al. Genome Biology 2013), but B104 is readily transformed whereas B73 is not.We have sequenced the B104 genome and are now working to create the genomics data infrastructure that would enable other researchers to work with their own transformants more easily and identify genomic differences that are associated with culturability and transformability

This poster outlines our progress toward these goals.