Researchers at the University of Warwick's horticultural research arm Warwick HRI have created an extensive new range of libraries of plant DNA that will provide a massive boost to the world's plant researchers. The new collection of DNA libraries is the largest of its type in the world and will provide researchers with a unique resource.
The Warwick researchers have set up a new spin out company "Warwick Plant Genomic Libraries Limited" to develop this powerful new resource for plant researchers.
It will be of particular benefit to academic researchers, scientists working in agriculture and horticulture and also to pharmaceutical research teams interested in the medicinal properties of plants.
The new libraries have two key features that will make them particularly attractive to researchers. Firstly, there are genomic libraries from 20 different plant species, a far wider range than is available from other DNA library services.
Secondly, the Warwick researchers have been able to create plant DNA libraries with large and "unbiased" inserts that give the best possible representation of the DNA of each species.
Genomic DNA libraries usually employ "restriction enzymes" to cut up the DNA but this method may preferentially select only certain regions of DNA and exclude other regions from the final plant "library". The techniques used by the Warwick researchers remove this limitation and make the plant's entire DNA available to researchers.
