Cornell University Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics

Genomics Initiative
 

Research

My laboratory is involved in three areas of research:  First, we are identifying and isolating the key loci determining the size and shape of tomato fruit and which account for the evolutionary transition of wild plants bearing small, round berries to the large, variably shaped tomatoes associated with modern agriculture.  We wish to unravel the molecular and developmental processes underlying fruit development, to understand the molecular basis of quantitative trait variation and to determine whether these same genes control fruit development/evolution in other domesticated plants.  We are also characterizing and cloning a locus involved in the control of stigma exsertion in wild and cultivated tomatoes and which was involved in the evolution of self pollination.

The second aspect of our work is in comparative genomics and bioinformatics.   We are engaged in a project to identify and sequence the majority of the genes in tomato and other nightshade crops (e.g. eggplant, pepper, petunia, potato) and to use that information to understand how the gene content and gene order is evolving in plants over long periods of time.

Finally, we are developing and testing new breeding methodologies based on molecular marker technology ? especially techniques directed at the identification and utilization of  novel genetic variation found in the wild ancestors of crop plants.

I teach Plant Genome Organization (PL BR and BS 653.3 ) and Molecular Breeding and Genetic Diversity (PL BR 653.6).

Course Web Site for PL BR/BIOPL 653 section 3    Plant Genome Organization and Functions.

Additional Field memberships: Plant Biology.

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Recent PublicationsLiu, J., J. Van Eck, B. Cong, and S. D. Tanksley. 2002. A new class of regulatory genes underlying the cause of pear-shaped tomato fruit.  PNAS 99: 13302-13306.

Fulton, T.M., van der Hoeven R., Eannetta, N., and Tanksley, S.D.  2002.  Identification, analysis, and utilization of a conserved ortholog set (COS) markers for comparative plant genomics in higher plants.  Plant cell 14:1457-1467.

Doganlar, S., A. Frary, M.-C. Daunay, R. N. Lester, and S. D. Tanksley.  2002.  A Comparative Genetic Linkage Map of Eggplant  (Solanum melongena) and its Implications for Genome Evolution in the Solanaceae.   Genetics 161: 1697-1711

Van der Hoeven, R., C. Ronning, J. J. Giovannoni, G. Martin, and S. D. Tanksley.  2002. Deductions about the number, organization and evolution of genes in the tomato genome based on analysis of a large EST collection and selective genomic sequencing. Plant Cell 14: 1441-1456

Lippman, Z. and S. D. Tanksley. 2001.  Dissecting the genetic pathway to extreme fruit size in tomato using a cross between the small-fruited wild species L. pimpinellifolium and L. esculentum, var. ëGiant Heirloomí.  Genetics 158:413-422.

Frary, A., T. C. Nesbitt, A. Frary, S. Grandillo, E. van der Knaap, B. Cong, J. Liu, J. Meller, R. Elber, K. Alpert, and S. D.Tanksley. 2000. Cloning and Transgenic Expression of fw2.2: a Quantitative Trait Locus Key to the Evolution of Tomato Fruit.   Science 289:85-87.

Ku, H.-M., T. Vision, J. Liu, and S. D. Tanksley. 2000.   Comparing Sequenced Segments of the Tomato and Arabidopsis Genomes:  Large-Scale Duplication Followed by Selective Gene Loss Creates a Network of Synteny.  PNAS 97: 9121-9126.

Vision, T., D. Brown, and S. D. Tanksley. 2000.  The origins of genomic duplications in Arabidopsis.  Science 290:2114-2117

Tanksley, S. D. and S. R. McCouch. 1997. Seed banks and molecular maps: unlocking genetic potential from the wild. Science 277:1063-1066.

© 2006 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University