Background Miscanthus x giganteus (Mxg) is a perennial grass that produces superior biomass yields in temperate environments. The essentially uncharacterized triploid genome (3n = 57, x = 19) of Mxg is likely critical for the rapid growth of this vegetatively-propagated interspecific hybrid. Results A survey of the complex Mxg genome was conducted using 454 pyrosequencing of genomic DNA and Ill...

Horizontal gene transfer has been postulated to occur between crops to co-occurring parasitic plants, but empirical evidence has been lacking. We present evidence that an HGT event moved a nuclear monocot gene into the genome of the eudicot parasite witchweed (Striga hermonthica), which infects many grass species in Africa. Analysis of expressed sequence tags revealed that the genome of S. herm...

Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is a major dryland crop in the Texas High Plains. Currently, drought and infestation by sugarcane aphid (SCA, Melanaphis sacchari) are two challenges to grain production area. A 2-year field study was conducted investigate effect of planting date (PD) hybrid selection on yield, evapotranspiration (ET), water use efficiency (WUE), SCA infestation. Five hybrids ...

Almost all that is known about the transition to flowering in grasses is based on studies of agronomic species. The grain produced by two tropically derived grasses, maize (Zea mays) and rice (Oryza sativa), and a temperate origin grass, wheat (Triticum aestivum), provides most of the world’s food. Other grasses, such as barley (Hordeum vulgare), ryegrass species (Lolium spp.), sorghum (Sorghum...

Large regions of genomic colinearity have been demonstrated among grass species by recombinational mapping, but the degree of chromosomal conservation at the sub-centimorgan level has not been extensively investigated. We cloned the rice and sorghum genes homologous to the sh2 locus of maize on bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), and observed that a homologue of the maize a1 gene was also ...