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Genetic diversity is the foundation for crop improvement. Understanding that diversity – how variation is distributed across the genome, how genetic architecture distinguishes local subpopulations, how sequence variation influences phenotype and crop performance -- is essential for effective germplasm conservation and use. Available genomic and molecular tools offer unprecedented opportunities to explore and utilize the diversity of the rice gene pool.

We have recently received a grant from the USDA_AFRI Program (#2009-65300-05698) to develop a 600K SNP chip for rice and to genotype 500 diverse accessions of O. sativa and O. rufipogon.

Re-sequencing: As a prerequisite, we are generating a pool of “discovery SNPs” based on the re-sequencing of 80 diverse rice accessions. A list of the accessions currently being re-sequenced at Cornell: [Excel Download]

The re-sequencing effort is being collaboratively financed and researchers and institutions that have contributed funding to this initiative are listed here: [Excel Download]

Rice Diversity Panel: A collection of 400 purified O. sativa and 100 purified O. rufipogon accessions will be genotyped on this project [Excel Download]. These accessions came from the Genetic Resources Center at IRRI and the USDA-ARS National Small Grains Collection in the US. They were purified by USDA-ARS scientists at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center (DBNRRC) in Stuttgart, Arkansas, USA as part of a project funded by the NSF Plant Genome Program (#0606461).

Access to Rice Diversity Panel: Purified seed stocks from the NSF Rice Diversity Panel are available through the Genetic Stocks-Oryza Center (GSOR) in Stuttgart, Arkansas, USA and will soon be available through the T. T. Chang Genetic Resources Center (GRC) at IRRI.

The NSF Rice Diversity Panel has been genotyped with 44,000 SNPs and is being phenotyped for diverse characters by a collaboration of researchers at Cornell, USDA-ARS DBNRRC, IRRI, University of Aberdeen, University of Pennsylvania, and Purdue University as the basis for association analysis. People who would like to use accessions from this Rice Diversity Panel to phenotype characters of interest may contact the GSOR (gsor@ars-grin.gov) to request seed stocks and will be asked to sign an MTA.