Genetics of alternative splicing evolution during sunflower domestication.

ABSTRACT: Alternative splicing enables organisms to produce the diversity of proteins necessary for multicellular life by using relatively few protein-coding genes. Although differences in splicing have been identified among divergent taxa, the shorter-term evolution of splicing is understudied. The origins of novel splice forms, and the contributions of alternative splicing to major evolutionary transitions, are largely unknown. This study used transcriptomes of wild and domesticated sunflowers to examine splice differentiation and regulation during domestication. We identified substantial splicing divergence between wild and domesticated sunflowers, mainly in the form of intron retention. Transcripts with divergent splicing were enriched for seed-development functions, suggesting that artificial s

SUBMITTER: Smith CCR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6042098 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature