A research group among the most reputed in plant genome oriented bioinformatics and has been highly influential in shaping the field by important and widely recognized contributions and analysis on a wide range of currently studied plant genomes (Arabidopsis, rice, maize, Medicago, tomato, Sorghum, Brachypodium, barley).

Beside the exhaustive and detailed analysis of plant genomic sequences, allocation of plant genomics information infrastructure and databases, the development of methods and the analysis and discovery of new features and functional interrelations through comparative and combinatorial means constitute the different working areas. Klaus Mayer is involved and in part coordinates a range of bioinformatic analysis packages in national and international research consortia (SynBreed, GABI-BARLEX, EU FP6 and FP7 projects and international initiatives on grass genome sequencing). The already existing infrastructure and experience will thus release considerable synergistic potential for transPLANT.

Selected publications:
The Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, Sequence and analysis of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana., Nature 408, 796-815 (2000)
Messing J et al., Map-based Analysis of Sequence Composition and Genome Organization of Maize. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 101, 14349-14359 (2004)
Schoof H. et al., MIPS plant genome resources: A framework for integrative and comparative analyses, Plant Physiology, 138, 1301-1309 (2005)
Bruggmann B. et al., Uneven Chromosome Contraction and Expansion in the Maize Genome, Genome Research, 16, 1241-1251 (2006)
Mayer K.F.X. et al., , Gene content and virtual gene order of barley chromosome 1H, Plant Physiology, 151, 496-505 (2009)
Paterson AH et al., The Sorghum bicolor genome and the diversification of grasses., Nature, 457(7229):551-556 (2009)
The Brachypodium Genome Initiative, Genome Sequencing and Analysis of the Model Grass Brachypodium distachyon, Nature, 463, 763-768 (2010)