Genome size and GC content evolution of Festuca: ancestral expansion and subsequent reduction.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Plant evolution is well known to be frequently associated with remarkable changes in genome size and composition; however, the knowledge of long-term evolutionary dynamics of these processes still remains very limited. Here a study is made of the fine dynamics of quantitative genome evolution in Festuca (fescue), the largest genus in Poaceae (grasses).

Methods

Using flow cytometry (PI, DAPI), measurements were made of DNA content (2C-value), monoploid genome size (Cx-value), average chromosome size (C/n-value) and cytosine + guanine (GC) content of 101 Festuca taxa and 14 of their close relatives. The results were compared with the existing phylogeny based on ITS and trnL-F sequences.

Key results

The divergence of the fescue lineage from related Po

SUBMITTER: Smarda P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2701825 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature