Despite the ubiquity of transposons in eukaryotic genomes, their evolutionary role remains controversial. The discovery of several domesticated genes has suggested that transposons can gain host functions, and thus contribute to the evolution of their host. Here, I present the results of a genome-wide screen for transposon-derived host genes, which was based on the idea that, once domesticated, the open reading frame of such elements would be maintained, while terminal structures necessary for transposition would be lost. Eight-hundred-and-sixty-three such transposon-dissociated elements were mined from the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana var. Columbia-0, of which less than 10% are associated with expression data. Phylogenetic analysis of Mutator superfamily genes in the genomes of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica (cv Nipponbare) and Arabidopsis, including 121 Mutator-derived transposon-dissociated elements, found that only two gene families are taxonomically widespread. MUSTANG1, a member of one of these families, appears to be under purifying selection. Thus, despite the dearth of taxonomically widespread and/or expressed transposon-dissociated elements, MUSTANG1, as well as three transposon-dissociated elements that may be associated with mutant phenotypes, might be newly discovered transposon-derived host genes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.82211 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Cowan, Rebecca |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002223819, proquestno: AAIMR12422, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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