Telomeric arrays display high levels of heritable polymorphism among closely related plant varieties
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Tomato telomeres are composed of a terminal 7-base-pair tandem repeat and a closely linked 162-base-pair subtelomeric repeat (TGRI). Together, these repeats account for 2% of the total chromosomal DNA. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis has been used to examine the long-range physical structure of these arrays in closely related varieties, and the authors report here that these arrays are undergoing heritable changes at a frequency as great as 2% per generation. Moreover, comparisons with other known hypervariable probes revealed that telomeric sites are more variable than any other known region of the plant genome and can be used to distinguish closely related plant varieties (tomato and melon) that are otherwise very similar at the DNA level. The fact that the polymorphisms are inherited in a mendelian fashion suggests applications in genetic mapping of telomeres and identification of varieties.
- OSTI ID:
- 5687542
- Journal Information:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; (United States), Vol. 89:4; ISSN 0027-8424
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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