title: Identification of a recently active Prunus-specific non-autonomous Mutator element with considerable genome shaping force.
abstract: Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are known to contribute to the evolution of plants, but only limited information is available for MITEs in the Prunus genome. We identified a MITE that has been named Falling Stones, FaSt. All structural features (349-bp size, 82-bp terminal inverted repeats and 9-bp target site duplications) are consistent with this MITE being a putative member of the Mutator transposase superfamily. FaSt showed a preferential accumulation in the short AT-rich segments of the euchromatin region of the peach genome. DNA sequencing and pollination experiments have been performed to confirm that the nested insertion of FaSt into the S-haplotype-specific F-box gene of apricot resulted in the breakdown of self-incompatibility (SI). A bioinformatics-based survey of the known Rosaceae and other genomes and a newly designed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay verified the Prunoideae-specific occurrence of FaSt elements. Phylogenetic analysis suggested a recent activity of FaSt in the Prunus genome. The occurrence of a nested insertion in the apricot genome further supports the recent activity of FaSt in response to abiotic stress conditions. This study reports on a presumably active non-autonomous Mutator element in Prunus that exhibits a major indirect genome shaping force through inducing loss-of-function mutation in the SI locus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Corvinus University of Budapest, P.O. Box 53, Budapest, H-1518, Hungary.
authors.forename: Júlia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Halász
authors.forename: Ossama
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kodad
authors.forename: Attila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hegedűs
mesh_terms: D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D027861:Prunus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Mutator transposon; Prunus; S-haplotype-specific F-box; apricot; loss-of-function mutation; miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements; self-compatibility; transposition