title: The bright side of transposons in crop evolution.
abstract: The past decades have revealed an unexpected yet prominent role of so-called 'junk DNA' in the regulation of gene expression, thereby challenging our view of the mechanisms underlying phenotypic evolution. In particular, several mechanisms through which transposable elements (TEs) participate in functional genome diversity have been depicted, bringing to light the 'TEs bright side'. However, the relative contribution of those mechanisms and, more generally, the importance of TE-based polymorphisms on past and present phenotypic variation in crops species remain poorly understood. Here, we review current knowledge on both issues, and discuss how analyses of massively parallel sequencing data combined with statistical methodologies and functional validations will help unravelling the impact of TEs on crop evolution in a near future.
authors.forename: Clémentine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vitte
authors.forename: Margaux-Alison
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fustier
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alix
authors.forename: Maud I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Tenaillon
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics*; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements
keywords: crop genomes; functional validation; next generation sequencing; phenotypic variation; structural variation; transposon insertion