• Login
    View Item 
    •   Athenaeum Home
    • BioMed Central Open Access Articles
    • Open Access Articles by UGA Faculty
    • View Item
    •   Athenaeum Home
    • BioMed Central Open Access Articles
    • Open Access Articles by UGA Faculty
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Evolution of the apomixis transmitting chromosome in Pennisetum

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    1471-2148-11-289.xml (134.1Kb)
    1471-2148-11-289.pdf (4.338Mb)
    1471-2148-11-289-S1.DOC (31Kb)
    Date
    2011-10-05
    Author
    Akiyama, Yukio
    Goel, Shailendra
    Conner, Joann A
    Hanna, Wayne W
    Yamada-Akiyama, Hitomi
    Ozias-Akins, Peggy
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Abstract Background Apomixis is an intriguing trait in plants that results in maternal clones through seed reproduction. Apomixis is an elusive, but potentially revolutionary, trait for plant breeding and hybrid seed production. Recent studies arguing that apomicts are not evolutionary dead ends have generated further interest in the evolution of asexual flowering plants. Results In the present study, we investigate karyotypic variation in a single chromosome responsible for transmitting apomixis, the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region carrier chromosome, in relation to species phylogeny in the genera Pennisetum and Cenchrus. A 1 kb region from the 3' end of the ndhF gene and a 900 bp region from trnL-F were sequenced from 12 apomictic and eight sexual species in the genus Pennisetum and allied genus Cenchrus. An 800 bp region from the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region also was sequenced from the 12 apomicts. Molecular cytological analysis was conducted in sixteen Pennisetum and two Cenchrus species. Our results indicate that the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region is shared by all apomictic species while it is absent from all sexual species or cytotypes. Contrary to our previous observations in Pennisetum squamulatum and Cenchrus ciliaris, retrotransposon sequences of the Opie-2-like family were not closely associated with the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region in all apomictic species, suggesting that they may have been accumulated after the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region originated. Conclusions Given that phylogenetic analysis merged Cenchrus and newly investigated Pennisetum species into a single clade containing a terminal cluster of Cenchrus apomicts, the presumed monophyletic origin of Cenchrus is supported. The Apospory-Specific Genomic Region likely preceded speciation in Cenchrus and its lateral transfer through hybridization and subsequent chromosome repatterning may have contributed to further speciation in the two genera.
    URI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-11-289
    http://hdl.handle.net/10724/19582
    Collections
    • Open Access Articles by UGA Faculty

    About Athenaeum | Contact Us | Send Feedback
     

     

    Browse

    All of AthenaeumCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    About Athenaeum | Contact Us | Send Feedback