MBE Advance Access published online on February 23, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msn052
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The Preferential Retention of Starch Synthesis Genes Reveals the Impact of Whole Genome Duplication on Grass Evolution


* State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
College of Biology, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050016
National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing 102206, China
Corresponding author: Mingsheng Chen, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China, Phone: 8610-64837087, Fax: 8610-64873428, E-mail: mschen{at}genetics.ac.cn
Received for publication January 27, 2008. Accepted for publication February 15, 2008.
Gene duplication is a major force in evolution. Here, we analyzed the fate of duplicated genes following the ancient whole genome duplication (WGD) in rice. Polyploidy-derived duplicated genes were found to be preferentially lost from one of each pair of duplicated chromosomal segments, suggesting the asymmetric gene loss may result from transcriptome dominance of the ancestral allotetraploid genome. Genes involved in synthesis and catabolism of saccharides were found to be preferentially retained in rice, reflecting different trajectories of duplicated genes formed by polyploidy between rice and Arabidopsis. Further studies demonstrated all three catalyzing steps in the starch biosynthesis pathway have polyploidy-derived duplicated genes and one copy in each step forms a dominant pathway in the grain filling-stage rice. The new starch biosynthesis pathway reflects one aspect of the impact of WGD on grass evolution
Key Words: genome duplication genome evolution comparative genomics
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