2009 PLoS Genetics Maize Genome Collection PLoS Genetics is pleased to announce the launch of the 2009 Maize Genome Collection.

Maize is an important crop in many countries of the world. It is used widely for human consumption, animal feed, and industrial materials. It is also considered an exemplar plant species for studying domestication, molecular evolution, and genome architecture. The authors of the research presented in this special collection used the first description of the B73 maize genome to probe some of the most intriguing questions in genetics and plant biology. The ten papers consider maize centromeres, new insights into transposon types and distribution, the abundance of very short FLcDNAs encoding predicted peptides, and many other “genetic jewels”.

Each peer-reviewed article, as well as Virginia Walbot’s editorial introducing the collection, is available online now at the PLoS Genetics website.

Editorial:

10 Reasons to be Tantalized by the B73 Maize Genome Walbot V

Research Articles:

The Physical and Genetic Framework of the Maize B73 Genome Wei F, Zhang J, Zhou S, He F, Schaeffer M, et al.

A Genome-Wide Characterization of MicroRNA Genes in Maize Zhang L, Chia J-M, Kumari S, Stein JC, Liu Z, et al.

Detailed Analysis of a Contiguous 22-Mb Region of the Maize Genome Wei F, Stein J, Liang C, Zhang J, Fulton RS, et al.

A Single Molecule Scaffold for the Maize Genome Zhou S, Wei F, Nguyen J, Bechner M, Potamousis K, et al.

Maize Inbreds Exhibit High Levels of Copy Number Variation (CNV) and Presence/Absence Variation (PAV) in Genome Content Springer NM, Ying K, Fu Y, Ji T, Yeh C-T, et al.

Sequencing, Mapping, and Analysis of 27,455 Maize Full-Length cDNAs Soderlund C, Descour A, Kudrna D, Bomhoff M, Boyd L, et al.

Loss of RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase 2 (RDR2) Function Causes Widespread and Unexpected Changes in the Expression of Transposons, Genes, and 24-nt Small RNAs Jia Y, Lisch DR, Ohtsu K, Scanlon MJ, Nettleton D, et al.

Mu Transposon Insertion Sites and Meiotic Recombination Events Co-localize with Epigenetic Marks for Open Chromatin across the Maize Genome Liu S, Yeh C-T, Ji T, Ying K, Wu H, et al.

Exceptional Diversity, Non-Random Distribution, and Rapid Evolution of Retroelements in the B73 Maize Genome Baucom RS, Estill JC, Chapparro C, Upshaw N, Jogi A, et al.

Maize Centromere Structure and Evolution: Sequence Analysis of Centromeres 2 and 5 Reveals Dynamic Loci Shaped Primarily by Retrotransposons Wolfgruber TK, Sharma A, Schneider KL, Albert PS, Koo DH, et al.