| Abstract Detail
Monday Morning Plenary Session Genomics meets Biodiversity Hudson, Andrew [1], Davies, Brendan [2], Schwarz-Sommer, Zsuzsanna [3]. Evolutionary genetics of Antirrhinum. THE taxonomic position of Antirrhinum majus - the garden snapdragon - within the Lamiales, sister to the Solanales - has proved useful for comparisons of genome structure. Sequencing of Antirrhinum BAC clones and hybridisation of BACs to an Antirrhinum EST library of 11,000 unigenes has shown significant microsynteny with tomato in all regions tested. Comparison with tomato and Arabidopsis has revealed the likely chromosome structure of the common ancestor of Rosids and Asterids. It has also allowed identification of likely orthologous genes and, through reverse genetic analysis in Antirrhinum, the extent to which their functions have diverged. The extent of synteny is being tested further by mapping conserved orthologous sequence markers. A. majus is only one member of a genus consisting of ~20 species of perennial sub-shrubs from the western Mediterranean region. Although morphologically and ecologically diverse, the species are able to form fertile hybrids with each other, allowing identification of genes underlying differences between species as quantitative trait loci (QTL). We have identified, for example, QTL responsible for differences in leaf and flower morphology, for which we have developed computational methods to capture co-ordinate variation in shape and size, their effects at the cellular level and the extent to which they act pleiotropically in leaves and floral organs. This analysis has also suggested that leaf size, but not leaf shape, has experienced strong directional selection. To place these findings in a phylogenetic context, we have examined the relationship between Antirrhinum species using a range of nuclear and organelle markers. Although this has supported the existence of distinct species of relatively recent origins, it does not resolve the relationships between all species, possibly due to allele sorting or hybridisation. While this hampers phylogenetic reconstruction it might facilitate identification of genes underlying inter-species variation by association of sequences with phenotypes.
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Related Links:
Antirrhinum majus database
1 - University of Edinburgh, Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, King\'s Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JH, UK
2 - Leeds University, Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Leeds, LS2 9TJ, UK
3 - Max-Planck-Institut fuer Zuechtungsforschung, Carl-von-Linne-Weg 10, 50829 Koeln, , Germany
Keywords:
Antirrhinum
snapdragon
comparative genomics
QTL
phylogeny.
Session: SOL02-8
Location: Ballroom ABCD/Monona Terrace
Date: Monday, July 24th, 2006
Time: 12:00 PM
Abstract ID:427 |
