A plant Y chromosome-STS marker encoding a degenerate retrotransposon.
The dioecious plant Silene latifolia has both X and Y sex chromosomes. Male-specific random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fragments were analyzed to identify Y-chromosome-linked sequences. One of the RAPD fragments, MS4, was converted into a more reliable and reproducible sequence-tagged site (STS) marker. A set of MS4 STS primers was used to amplify two genomic DNA fragments (MS4a and MS4b) from a male plant and one (MS4a) from a female plant, which indicates that MS4b is located on the Y chromosome. Sequence analysis revealed that MS4a encoded a gag protein of a Ty3-gypsy-like retrotransposon. A 147-bp region from the middle of MS4a was deleted in MS4b. The MS4b sequence was not detected in the most closely related dioecious species, S. dioica. This suggests that a retrotransposon with the MS4b sequence has degenerated recently on the Y chromosome.
Obara
Mari
M
Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan.
Matsunaga
Sachihiro
S
Nakao
Shunsuke
S
Kawano
Shigeyuki
S
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D018626:Retroelements; D016324:Sequence Tagged Sites; D029751:Silene / Q000235:genetics*; D014998:Y Chromosome
D018626:Retroelements