Abstract Detail

Genetics Section

Price, H. James [1].

Evolution in angiosperms involved both increases and decreases in genome size..

Genome size of angiosperms varies over 600-fold from about 157 to 88,000 megabasepairs. The limited understanding of the developmental, evolutionary and adaptive significance of the massive variation in DNA content is a major enigma of biology. It has been proposed that polyploidy and the activity of retrotransposons drives the evolution of genome size in plants from low to high and that plants have a 'one-way ticket to genomic obesity'(Plant Cell 9:1509-1514, 1997). The construction of plant phylogenies that include DNA sequence comparisons allows genome size to be analyzed within a phylogenetic framework. The evolution of DNA content has been studied by superimposing genome sizes on well-supported phylogenies. Several studies to date indicate that the evolution of genome size is not unidirectional. Both increases and decreases in genome size are common evolutionary events.

1 - Texas A&M University, Soil and Crop Sciences, Mail Stop 2474, College Station, Texas, 77840-2474

Keywords:
genome size
Evolution
phylogeny.

Presentation Type: Paper
Session: 53-7
Location: Peruvian (Cliff Lodge)
Date: Wednesday, August 4th, 2004
Time: 2:30 PM
Abstract ID:37