新的禾本科模式植物——二穗短柄草

水稻（Oryza sativa）是禾本科中目前唯一已完成基因组测序的模式植物，但由于它很早从冷季型禾本科中进化分离出来，故其作为禾本科其他亚科的模式植物有一定局限性，因此，需要一种新的、更适合的模式植物。二穗短柄草（Brachypodium distachyon）是一种温带禾草，归属禾本科早熟禾亚科短柄草族短柄草属，具有基因组小、株型小、自花授粉、一年生、生命周期短、有二倍体和一系列多倍体、易培植、易转化等诸多优点，尤其是与很多重要的谷类作物如小麦、大麦、燕麦、玉米、水稻、高梁等以及许多牧草与草坪草有较近的亲缘关系，因而是温带禾本科植物功能基因纽学以及生物能源作物（如柳枝稷）研究的理想模式植物，作者例举二穗短柄草之所以成为新模式植物系统的依据，并介绍其在遗传进化、基因组特点、功能基因组及形态特征等方面的研究进展。

Brachypodium distachyon,a new model gramineous plant

Rice(Oryza sativa) is a solely model plant of Gramineae whose sequencing had been completed,but rice genome sequence has limitations as a template for use in isolating genes from cool-season cereals because it had been separated from the cool-season grasses for about 50 million years.Brachypodium distachyon has been proposed as a new model temperate grass because it is related to the major cereal grain species such as wheat,barley,oat,maize,rice,sorghum,and many forage and turf species.And it has many quali...