Cereal genome analysis using rice as a model.

Researchers are eagerly waiting for the physical map of rice to become completed and available for use as a model for all cereals. The most significant advances of the past year have been the progress toward positional cloning of genes and the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) from detailed restriction fragment length polymorphism maps. Future focus will be: first, the enhanced dissemination and integration of the available data in World Wide Web accessible databases for easy comparison of genetic and physical mapping data across various species; second, the expanded distribution of a wide variety of DNA materials (cDNA clones, yeast artificial chromosomes, bacterial artificial chromosomes and other probes) for use in other cereals on the basis of the rice model map; and third, the applied breeding by locating and isolating sequences corresponding to important agronomic traits, often correlating with QTL.