A Norwegian arabidopsis Research Centre (NARC)

The Norwegian Functional Genomics plan (FUGE) emphasizes the significance of functional genomics for basic biological research and the importance of using genetic model organisms to understand basic biological mechanisms. In plant science, Arabidopsis tha liana is the preferred model organism. We will establish a Norwegian Arabidopsis Research Center (NARC) to enable Norwegian plant scientists to contribute to functional genomics at a high international level. Our goal is to strengthen the quality of basic plant science by taking advantage of the tools available in the Arabidopsis model system, and utilize comparative genomics to explore Arabidopsis as a resource to speed up applied research in important Norwegian crops. NARC will be built on the existing competence in Arabidopsis research at the University of Oslo, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the Agricultural University of Norway, and has support from the whole plant science community in Norway. NARC will up -hold and develop competence in Arabidopsis post-genomic techniques and methodologies and offer services to the Norwegian plant science community such as provision of clones for microarrays, and services for transformation and protein-protein interactions . NARC will take advantage of other FUGE resource centres, e.g. The Norwegian Micro Array Consortium, imaging and proteomics facilities and bioinformatics expertise.