This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 140/3/963    most recent pp.105.073809v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gualtieri, G. Articles by Ozias-Akins, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gualtieri, G. Articles by Ozias-Akins, P. Agricola Articles by Gualtieri, G. Articles by Ozias-Akins, P. Related Collections Legume Biology

GENETICS, GENOMICS, AND MOLECULAR EVOLUTION

A Segment of the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region Is Highly Microsyntenic Not Only between the Apomicts Pennisetum squamulatum and Buffelgrass, But Also with a Rice Chromosome 11 Centromeric-Proximal Genomic Region^1,[W]

Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, Tifton, Georgia 31793–0748 (G.G., J.A.C., P.O.-A.); and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843 (D.T.M., L.D.M., J.E.M.)

Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones from apomicts Pennisetum squamulatum and buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris), isolated with the apospory-specific genomic region (ASGR) marker ugt197, were assembled into contigs that were extended by chromosome walking. Gene-like sequences from contigs were identified by shotgun sequencing and BLAST searches, and used to isolate orthologous rice contigs. Additional gene-like sequences in the apomicts' contigs were identified by bioinformatics using fully sequenced BACs from orthologous rice contigs as templates, as well as by interspecies, whole-contig cross-hybridizations. Hierarchical contig orthology was rapidly assessed by constructing detailed long-range contig molecular maps showing the distribution of gene-like sequences and markers, and searching for microsyntenic patterns of sequence identity and spatial distribution within and across species contigs. We found microsynteny between P. squamulatum and buffelgrass contigs. Importantly, this approach also enabled us to isolate from within the rice (Oryza sativa) genome contig Rice A, which shows the highest microsynteny and is most orthologous to the ugt197-containing C1C buffelgrass contig. Contig Rice A belongs to the rice genome database contig 77 (according to the current September 12, 2003, rice fingerprint contig build) that maps proximal to the chromosome 11 centromere, a feature that interestingly correlates with the mapping of ASGR-linked BACs proximal to the centromere or centromere-like sequences. Thus, relatedness between these two orthologous contigs is supported both by their molecular microstructure and by their centromeric-proximal location. Our discoveries promote the use of a microsynteny-based positional-cloning approach using the rice genome as a template to aid in constructing the ASGR toward the isolation of genes underlying apospory.

² Present address: School of Integrative Biology, Faculty of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Peggy Ozias-Akins (pozias{at}uga.edu).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.105.073809.

^* Corresponding author; e-mail pozias{at}uga.edu; fax 229–386–7371.

Received November 4, 2005; returned for revision December 21, 2005; accepted January 4, 2006.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. A. Conner, S. Goel, G. Gunawan, M.-M. Cordonnier-Pratt, V. E. Johnson, C. Liang, H. Wang, L. H. Pratt, J. E. Mullet, J. DeBarry, et al. Sequence Analysis of Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Clones from the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region of Pennisetum and Cenchrus Plant Physiology, July 1, 2008; 147(3): 1396 - 1411. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Goel, Z. Chen, Y. Akiyama, J. A. Conner, M. Basu, G. Gualtieri, W. W. Hanna, and P. Ozias-Akins Comparative Physical Mapping of the Apospory-Specific Genomic Region in Two Apomictic Grasses: Pennisetum squamulatum and Cenchrus ciliaris Genetics, May 1, 2006; 173(1): 389 - 400. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]