Deep genome-wide measurement of meiotic gene conversion using tetrad analysis in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Gene conversion, the non-reciprocal exchange of genetic information, is one of the potential products of meiotic recombination. It can shape genome structure by acting on repetitive DNA elements, influence allele frequencies at the population level, and is known to be implicated in human disease. But gene conversion is hard to detect directly except in organisms, like fungi, that group their gametes following meiosis. We have developed a novel visual assay that enables us to detect gene conversion events directly in the gametes of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Using this assay we measured gene conversion events across the genome of more than one million meioses and determined that the genome-wide average frequency is 3.5×10(-4) conversions per locus per meiosis. We also detected significant locus-to-locus variation in conversion frequency but no intra-locus variation. Significantly, we found one locus on the short arm of chromosome 4 that experienced 3-fold to 6-fold more gene conversions than the other loci tested. Finally, we demonstrated that we could modulate conversion frequency by varying experimental conditions.
Department of Biology and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Yujin
Y
Sun
Jonathan H
JH
Ambrose
Brena S
BS
Haughey
Tyler D
TD
Webster
Sarah N
SN
Pierrie
Daniela F
DF
Muñoz
Emily C
EC
Wellman
Shalom
S
Cherian
Scott M
SM
Lewis
Luke E
LE
Berchowitz
Gregory P
GP
Copenhaver
D000483:Alleles; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D005785:Gene Conversion; D018745:Genome, Plant; D008540:Meiosis; D008957:Models, Genetic; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D011995:Recombination, Genetic