Biology subjects

Casacuberta, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Casacuberta, J..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

The replicative amplification of MITEs and their impact on rice trait variability

Transposable elements (TEs) are a rich source of genetic variability. Among TEs, Miniature Inverted- repeat Transposable Elements (MITEs) are of particular interest as they are present in high copy numbers in plant genomes and are closely associated with genes. MITEs are deletion derivatives of class II transposons, and can be mobilized by the transposases encoded by the latters through a typical cut-and-paste mechanism. However, this mechanism cannot account for the high copy number MITEs attain in plant genomes, and the mechanism by which MITEs amplify remains elusive. We present here an analysis of 103,109 Transposon Insertion Polymorphisms (TIPs) in 1,059 O. sativa genomes representing the main rice population groups. We show that an important fraction of MITE insertions has been fixed in rice concomitantly with rice domestication. However, another fraction of MITE insertions is present at low frequencies. We performed MITE TIP-GWAS to study the impact of these elements on agronomically important traits and found that these elements uncover more trait associations than SNPs on important phenotypes such as grain width. Finally, using SNP-GWAS and TIP-GWAS we provide evidences of the replicative amplification of MITEs, suggesting a mechanism of amplification uncoupled from the typical cut-and-paste mechanism of class II transposons.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Differences in firing efficiency, chromatin and transcription underlie the developmental plasticity of Arabidopsis originome

Eukaryotic genome replication depends on thousands of DNA replication origins (ORIs) that constitute the originome. A major challenge is to learn ORI biology in multicellular organisms in the context of growing organs to understand their developmental plasticity. We have determined the originome and chromatin landscape of Arabidopsis thaliana at two stages of postembryonic development. ORIs associate with multiple chromatin signatures including TSS but also regulatory regions and heterochromatin, where ORIs colocalize with retrotransposons. In addition, quantitative analysis of ORI activity led us to conclude that strong ORIs have high GC content and clusters of GGN trinucleotides. Development primarily influences ORI firing strength rather than ORI location. ORIs that preferentially fire at early developmental stages colocalize with GC-rich heterochromatin whereas at later stages with transcribed genes, perhaps as a consequence of changes in chromatin features associated with developmental processes. Our study provides the originome of an organism at the postembryo stage that should allow us to study ORI biology in response to development, environment and mutations with a quantitative approach. In a wider scope, the computational strategies developed here can be transferred to other eukaryotic systems.

plant biology↗