Proceedings of the XLVI Italian
Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress
Giardini
Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002
ISBN 88-900622-3-1
Oral
Communication Abstract - S4e
LTR AND NON-LTR RETROTRANSPOSONS ARE COMMON GENETIC
COMPONENTS IN FAGUS SYLVATICA L. GENOME
EMILIANI G., PAFFETTI D., GIANNINI R.
Department of Environmental and Forestry Technology
and Science (DISTAF), Faculty of Agriculture, University of Florence
retrotransposons, Fagus sylvatica, BLAST,
regulation, genetic improvement
Retrotransposable elements are common
parts of plants genomes (Heslop-Harrison et al ., 1997) showing high variability (Le et
al. , 2000)
and complex taxonomy; their high stress-related mobility in the genome
contribute to genome evolution (Wendel & Wessler, 2000) and the insertion
in coding regions imply demonstrated regulative action (White et al., 1994; Liu
& Wendel, 2000). The presence of retrotransposons is widely reported for
herbaceous and agronomic species (Wang et al ., 1997; Rogers & Pauls, 2000)
whilst in forest trees only for conifers (Kamm et al ., 1996; L’Homme et
al ., 2000).
During a genetic diversity screening in
beech’s (Fagus sylvatica L.) population of southern Italy using RAPD markers,
we argued a peculiar role for two high frequency markers (freq. > 98% among
the 700 individuals analysed). Southern Blotting analysis demonstrated markers
uniqueness and the effective presence of fragments in the samples. Sequencing
and successive BLAST alignments scored high similarity to Arabidopsis ’ and Zea mais ’ retrotransposons.
The retrotransposons discovered (GeneBank
accession n. AF405557, AF405555) in Beech belong to the groups of Copia-like
and non-LTR retrotransposable elements.
The potential regulative function of
these two elements can be used as functional markers useful in genetic
improvement strategies.
The work is going ahead in screening
other broadleaf for retrotransposable elements to use in adaptation studies and
phylogenetic analysis.
Liu B. & Wendel J. F. (2000) – Genome 43: 874-880.
Heslop-Harrison J. S. et al . (1997) – Genetica 100: 197-204.
L’Homme Y. et al . (2000) – Genome 43: 1084-1089.
Wendel J. F. & Wessler S. R. (2000)
– PNAS 97: 6250-6252.
White S. E. et al . (1994) – PNAS 91: 11792-11796.
Wang S. et al . (1997) – Plant Mol. Biol . 33: 1051-1058.
Rogers S. A. & Pauls K. P. (2000)
– Genome 43: 887-894.
Kamm A. et al . (1996) – PNAS 93: 2708-2713.
Le Q. H. et al . (2000) – PNAS 97: 7376-7381.