Selfish genetic elements and plant genome size evolution

J Arvid Ågren; Stephen I Wright

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.007

Selfish genetic elements and plant genome size evolution

Trends Plant Sci. 2015 Apr;20(4):195-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.007. Epub 2015 Mar 20.

Authors

J Arvid Ågren¹, Stephen I Wright²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3B2. Electronic address: arvid.agren@utoronto.ca.
² Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3B2.

PMID: 25802093
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.03.007

Abstract

Plants have contributed extensively to our understanding of selfish genetic elements. Most recently, the sequencing of the Arabis alpina genome shows how the co-evolutionary arms race between transposable elements and the silencing machinery employed to control them may drive the evolution of genome size.

Keywords: Arabis alpina; selfish genetic elements; transposable elements.

MeSH terms

Arabis / genetics*
DNA Transposable Elements*
Evolution, Molecular*
Genome Size*
Genome, Plant*

Substances

DNA Transposable Elements