Biology Faculty Articles
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-17-2014
Publication Title
BMC Genomics
Keywords
Long Terminal Repeat, Repetitive Sequence, Subtelomeric Region, Repeat Family, Long Terminal Repeat Retrotransposon
ISSN
1471-2164
Volume
15
First Page
1132
Abstract
Background: In addition to gene identification and annotation, repetitive sequence analysis has become an integral part of genome sequencing projects. Identification of repeats is important not only because it improves gene prediction, but also because of the role that repetitive sequences play in determining the structure and evolution of genes and genomes. Several methods using different repeat-finding strategies are available for whole-genome repeat sequence analysis. Four independent approaches were used to identify and characterize the repetitive fraction of the Mycosphaerella graminicola (synonym Zymoseptoria tritici) genome. This ascomycete fungus is a wheat pathogen and its finished genome comprises 21 chromosomes, eight of which can be lost with no obvious effects on fitness so are dispensable. Results: Using a combination of four repeat-finding methods, at least 17% of the M. graminicola genome was estimated to be repetitive. Class I transposable elements, that amplify via an RNA intermediate, account for about 70% of the total repetitive content in the M. graminicola genome. The dispensable chromosomes had a higher percentage of repetitive elements as compared to the core chromosomes. Distribution of repeats across the chromosomes also varied, with at least six chromosomes showing a non-random distribution of repetitive elements. Repeat families showed transition mutations and a CpA → TpA dinucleotide bias, indicating the presence of a repeat-induced point mutation (RIP)-like mechanism in M. graminicola. One gene family and two repeat families specific to subtelomeres also were identified in the M. graminicola genome. A total of 78 putative clusters of nested elements was found in the M. graminicola genome. Several genes with putative roles in pathogenicity were found associated with these nested repeat clusters. This analysis of the transposable element content in the finished M. graminicola genome resulted in a thorough and highly curated database of repetitive sequences. Conclusions: This comprehensive analysis will serve as a scaffold to address additional biological questions regarding the origin and fate of transposable elements in fungi. Future analyses of the distribution of repetitive sequences in M. graminicola also will be able to provide insights into the association of repeats with genes and their potential role in gene and genome evolution.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
NSUWorks Citation
Dhillon, Braham; Navdeep Gill; Richard Hamelin; and Stephen Goodwin. 2014. "Landscape of Transposable Elements in Mycosphaerella graminicola." BMC Genomics 15, (): 1132. doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-1132.
ORCID ID
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3746-1866
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-1132
Comments
© 2014 Dhillon et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated