Prospect of plant molecular cytogenetics in the 21st century

The genomes of Arabidopsis and rice have been fully sequenced. Genomic sequencing provides global information about genome structure and organization. A comprehensive research account of our recent studies conducted on genome painting, comparative genomics and genome fusion is provided in order to project the prospects of plant cytogenetic research in post-genomics era. Genome analysis by GISH using genome painting is demonstrated as an excellent means suitable for visualization of a whole genome, since total genomic DNA representing the overall molecular composition of the genome is used as a probe. FISH on extended DNA fibers has been developed for high-resolution FISH and has contributed to determining the copy number and order of genes. We have also mapped a number of genes involving starch synthesis on wheat chromosomes by FISH and compared the position of these genes on linkage map of rice. Macro synteny between wheat and rice can be observed by comparing the location of these genes in spite of the fact that the size of DNA per chromosome differs by 20 fold in two. Moreover, to approach our goal towards making bread and udon noodles from rice flour in future by incorporating bread making and the noodle qualifies in rice, we have been successful in introducing large genomic DNA fragments containing agronomically important genes of wheat into a rice by successive introduction of large insert BAC clones, there by expanding genetic variability in rice. We call this method genome fusion.