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SUMMARY: The genome landscape: consequences of repetitive DNA organization
  and evolution in diploid and polyploid crops - Professor Pat Heslop-Harri
 son\, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology\, University of Leicester
DTSTART:20200130T140000Z
DTEND:20200130T150000Z
UID:TALK129505@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Caroline Newnham
DESCRIPTION:As in other species\, repetitive DNA makes up the majority of 
 the plant genome\, including shorter and longer tandem repeats\, DNA trans
 posons and retrotransposons. These are often the most rapidly evolving com
 ponent of the genome\, but many aspects of their evolution are difficult t
 o study because of the high copy numbers and degeneracy. Rapid evolution m
 eans the elements can provide useful markers for evolution\, particularly 
 in species that are polyploid containing several related genomes. Other el
 ements are related to pararetroviruses\, and may have a role in plant viru
 s protection. The functions of repeats may range from epigenetic through g
 enetic\, and I will discuss these in relation to evolutionary constraints 
 – "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" as s
 tated by Theodosius Dobzhansky\, and “The history of all organisms is in
 scribed in the chromosomes” as noted by Hitoshi Kihara. We can develop m
 odels of drivers and mechanisms. New work I will discuss is exploiting lon
 g\, single-molecule DNA sequencing (Nanopore)\, for the first time\, to gi
 ve insight into the organization of arrays of tandem repeats\, their inter
 spersion with retroelements\, and other rearrangements. Preliminary result
 s show insertion of particular retroelements into tandem arrays of 8.5kb 4
 5S rDNA units\, although we have concerns about sequencing artefacts in so
 me situations. Our somewhat out-of-date website www.molcyt.com gives some 
 details of our programme.
LOCATION:Biffen Lecture Theatre\, Department of Genetics\, Downing Site
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