Transposition of HOPPLA in siRNA-deficient plants suggests a limited effect of the environment on retrotransposon mobility in Brachypodium distachyon.

ABSTRACT: Long terminal repeat retrotransposons (LTR-RTs) are powerful mutagens regarded as a major source of genetic novelty and important drivers of evolution. Yet, the uncontrolled and potentially selfish proliferation of LTR-RTs can lead to deleterious mutations and genome instability, with large fitness costs for their host. While population genomics data suggest that an ongoing LTR-RT mobility is common in many species, the understanding of their dual role in evolution is limited. Here, we harness the genetic diversity of 320 sequenced natural accessions of the Mediterranean grass Brachypodium distachyon to characterize how genetic and environmental factors influence plant LTR-RT dynamics in the wild. When combining a coverage-based approach to estimate global LTR-RT copy number variations wit

SUBMITTER: Thieme M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10959353 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature