ABSTRACT

The massive improvements in DNA sequencing technology over the last twenty years enabled the sequencing of higher plant genomes (reviewed in Hirsch and Buell 2013). A genome sequence by itself only provides a parts list for an organism and does not give insight on the biological roles or functions of the genes, repeats, and intergenic sequences within the genome. With the completion of the fi rst plant genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, the plant biology community and the National Science Foundation prioritized

Horticultural Sciences Department and Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Florida, P.O. Box 110690, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. *Corresponding author: settles@ufl .edu

goals for understanding the function of every gene in the Arabidopsis genome (Somerville and Dangl 2000). This Arabidopsis 2010 Project gave rise to the fi eld of plant functional genomics in which gene functions are studied on a genomewide scale. Functional genomics technologies all seek to transform hypothesis-driven experimental approaches for individual gene functions into genomewide technologies that can be used to study tens, hundreds, or thousands of genes in parallel. The completion of the B73 maize genome has identifi ed over 32,000 protein-coding genes with most having no known function (Schnable et al. 2009). Functional genomics is critical to help identify the genes that can be targeted for crop improvement.