Abstract
The rapidly accumulating genome sequence information for the two model legumes, Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula, provides a unique opportunity for comparative studies on the complexity and diversity of legume genomes. As of November 2005, microsynteny has been detected for approximately half of the sequenced L. japonicus clones, although traces of local duplications, inversions, deletions, and insertions are observed. The proportion of the clones exhibiting microsynteny is expected to increase as further sequences become available. By combining the syntenic relations assigned at the clone level with positional information on the linkage maps, the microsyntenic relations could be expanded to macrosynteny at the whole chromosome level.
In order to explore the applicability of the L. japonicus model to crop legumes, synteny analyses against soybean and red-clover are also underway by using cDNA marker information. The latest status of the comparative genome analysis of L. japonicus will be presented.
