On Jul. 1, 2010, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists announced a genetic map of switchgrass.

The project map, published by Christian Tobias, a molecular biologist at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., and his colleagues, was expected to speed up the search for genes that will make the perennial plant a more viable source of bioenergy.

The complete linkage maps have indicated that the subgenomes of the tetraploid, lowland switchgrass ecotypes should be considered independent due to a high degree of preferential pairing. Furthermore, conserved gene order between switchgrass and other grass taxa indicated by our comparison with sorghum is likely to facilitate map-based cloning and translational approaches using information from other grasses and cereals. However, the presence of segregation distortion, multilocus interactions, and an unknown degree of selfing can complicate interpretation of the genetic maps. The marker resources presented should provide impetus for development of further populations and QTL studies.