Genomic and functional characterization of mutator transposons in sugarcane

• Grant number: 03/08890-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2004
• End date: March 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Maria Magdalena Rossi
• Grantee: Maria Magdalena Rossi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 07/54162-0 - The Mutator system in sugarcane: a comparative analysis with rice, BP.MS

Abstract

Transposition elements (TEs) constitute an important part of the genetic material of eucarionts, representing from 45 per cent in humans to 50-80 per cent in the genome of gramineous plants. In the Sucest database, an abundant spectrum of expressed TEs was found. The most frequent element was the transposon MuDR. Results obtained in our laboratory revealed that there exists at least three classes of these transposons in plants and that these existed prior to the divergence between mono and dicotyledons. Within each of the classes the phylogenetic relationships between the species are maintained. Each class presents patterns of genetic insertion, in addition to frequency of different stop codons and frame shifts; these observations suggest differences in the levels of activity of the elements. In this context, this project aims to clone the MuDR elements in sugarcane for its subsequent genomic and functional characterization, the specific objectives being: the cloning of at least one element of MuDR for each one of the three classes identified, structural characterization of the cloned elements (introns, exons, TIRs, etc), characterization of the flanking regions, evaluation of the number of copies, identification of the parental contribution of the hybrids and the study of the expression of the elements. (AU)