title: Characterization of the genome of the mealybug Planococcus lilacinus, a model organism for studying whole-chromosome imprinting and inactivation.
abstract: The co-occurrence of three chromosome-wide phenomena--imprinting, facultative heterochromatization and diffuse centromere--in the mealybug Planococcus lilacinus makes investigation of the genomics of this species an attractive prospect. In order to estimate the complexity of the genome of this species, 300 random stretches of its DNA, constituting approximately 0.1% of the genome, were sequenced. Coding sequences appear to constitute approximately 53.5%, repeat sequences approximately 44.5% and non-coding single-copy sequences approximately 2% of the genome. The proportion of repetitive sequences in the mealybug is higher than that in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (approximately 30%). The mealybug genome (approximately 220 Mb) is about 1.3 times the size of the fly genome (approximately 165 Mb) and its GC content (approximately 35%) less than that of the fly genome (approximately 40%). The relative abundance of various dinucleotides, as analysed by the method of Gentles and Karlin, shows that the dinucleotide signatures of the two species are moderately similar and that in the mealybug there is neither over-representation nor under-representation of any dinucleotide.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Centre for Human Genetics, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: K Naga
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Mohan
authors.forename: Paramita
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: H Sharat
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Chandra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018900:Dinucleotide Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020868:Gene Silencing / Q000502:physiology*; D017344:Genes, Insect; D016678:Genome; D018392:Genomic Imprinting / Q000235:genetics*; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid