Comparative omics of tropical crops

NGS technologies led to an impressive production of omics data for tropical crops such as rice, sorghum, sugarcane, banana, palms, cocoa, citrus, coffee, cotton. This allows conducting comparative omics studies at an unprecedented scale, and also helps tackling challenging issues such as the sequencing and analysis of complex genomes.
Course by N. Yahiaoui during the 2017 session. © A. Seye

Tools and approaches are set up to understand how plant genomes have evolved in ancient and more recent times, to assess the impact of genome structure on gene family evolution and gene function, to characterize the diversity of species, the diversity of gene expression patterns. This knowledge can support the identification of genes responsible for specific traits.  Guidelines for the generation, use and analysis of these various data are strategic for scientists and research groups thinking about tomorrows’ cultivars.

By the end of the course, students

  • will be acquainted with the new generation sequencing technologies that are available and their application to different case studies.
  •  will have been exposed to an array of omics studies including: comparative transcriptomics, genome sequencing, whole genome duplication analyses, gene family evolution, with a focus on tropical non model plants.
  •  will have a first experience on comparative omics web platforms.
  • will have conducted fine analysis of selected data sets originating from current research projects.
Exercice en binôme

The courses (12.5 h) are dedicated to Master (M2) students. They include presentations based on current research projects and also data analysis (hands-on sessions) of research cases selected among various crops.

Next session : September 2019, at University Montpellier.

The module is organized by AGAP (Teams SEG and ID) and DIADE (RICE team) units. François Sabot, Olivier Garsmeur, Stéphanie Bocs, Nabila Yahiaoui are contributors to this module.