title: Molecular characterization of a family of tandemly repeated DNA sequences, TR-1, in heterochromatic knobs of maize and its relatives.
abstract: Two families of tandem repeats, 180-bp and TR-1, have been found in the knobs of maize. In this study, we isolated 59 clones belonging to the TR-1 family from maize and teosinte. Southern hybridization and sequence analysis revealed that members of this family are composed of three basic sequences, A (67 bp); B (184 bp) or its variants B' (184 bp), 2/3B (115 bp), 2/3B' (115 bp); and C (108 bp), which are arranged in various combinations to produce repeat units that are multiples of approximately 180 bp. The molecular structure of TR-1 elements suggests that: (1) the B component may evolve from the 180-bp knob repeat as a result of mutations during evolution; (2) B' may originate from B through lateral amplification accompanied by base-pair changes; (3) C plus A may be a single sequence that is added to B and B', probably via nonhomologous recombination; and (4) 69 bp at the 3' end of B or B', and the entire sequence of C can be removed from the elements by an unknown mechanism. Sequence comparisons showed partial homologies between TR-1 elements and two centromeric sequences (B repeats) of the supernumerary B chromosome. This result, together with the finding of other investigators that the B repeat is also fragmentarily homologous to the 180-bp repeat, suggests that the B repeat is derived from knob repeats in A chromosomes, which subsequently become structurally modified. Fluorescence in situ hybridization localized the B repeat to the B centromere and the 180-bp and TR-1 repeats to the proximal heterochromatin knob on the B chromosome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 106, Republic of China.
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D040461:Gene Components; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000235:genetics*; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics*; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D006570:Heterochromatin