NEW YORK, Oct. 5 (GenomeWeb News) - Perlegen Sciences, the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies said today that they have initiated a collaboration to study DNA variation between 20 strains of Arabidopsis thaliana.
The study will be funded by a grant, the amount of which is undisclosed, from the Max Planck Society, an independent, non-profit research organization based in Munchen, Germany. The Institute for Developmental Biology in Tubingen is one of the society's 80 research institutes, according to the MPS website.
The goal of the study, according to an official statement, is to identify the whole-genome distribution of genetic variants in the plant that will enable subsequent mechanistic studies of adaptive change. Mountain View, Calif.-based Perlegen will perform high-throughput SNP detection and analysis, while Max Planck and the La Jolla, Calif.-based Salk Institute will contribute their understanding of the plant's natural variation.
Arabidopsis is one of the most widely used plants in genetic studies, and the first to have its genome sequenced. The current collaboration will be the first public, whole-genome study of intraspecies variation in the plant, the organizations said.