Abundance, distribution, and transcriptional activity of repetitive elements in the maize genome.

ABSTRACT: Long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons have been shown to make up much of the maize genome. Although these elements are known to be prevalent in plant genomes of a middle-to-large size, little information is available on the relative proportions composed by specific families of elements in a single genome. We sequenced a library of randomly sheared genomic DNA from maize to characterize this genome. BLAST analysis of these sequences demonstrated that the maize genome is composed of diverse sequences that represent numerous families of retrotransposons. The largest families contain the previously described elements Huck, Ji, and Opie. Approximately 5% of the sequences are predicted to encode proteins. The genomic abundance of 16 families of elements was estimated by hybridization to an

SUBMITTER: Meyers BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC311155 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature