Year: 2005-06

Company: Ceres

Liaison(s): Peter Mascia, Walter Nelson

The development of molecular techniques for genetic analysis has led to an increase in knowledge of plant genetics. Molecular markers can be used to monitor DNA sequence variation in and among species and create new sources of genetic variation by reinserting enhanced genes into plants, thus introducing new or improved traits. Ceres is a plant biotechnology company that focuses largely on the production of improved plants and plant-based technologies. The identification of molecular markers linked to useful traits is based on genetic marker maps, linkage maps and pedigree charts. 6 CERES Sponsor Liaisons: Peter Mascia, Walter Nelson Faculty Advisors: Animesh Ray, Herbert Sauro BIOCATALYTICS Sponsor Liaison: David Rozzell Faculty Advisors: David Finegold, Angelika Niemz A KGI team working with Ceres has evaluated the existing methods for processing, generating, and using molecular marker maps to develop a functional molecular marker software system. The team has validated the system by analyzing molecular marker data and by generating and using molecular marker maps. A second component of the project was to developed a database to hold competitive intelligence information. The team has designed such a database from scratch and gathered information from the plant biotechnology industry with which to populate it.