Plant Genome Organization and Structure : Repeated Sequences
Introduction

Analysis of Genomes by Reassociation Experiments

Repeated Sequences

Organization of Single-copy Sequences

Evolution of Repeated Sequences in Cereals

Estimating the Number of Expressed Genes

Chloroplast Genome Organization

Mitochondrial Genome Organization

RNA Editing

Course Topics

Course Home Page

Repeated Sequences

The intermediate and fast components are composed of sequences that are found many times in the genome. These sequences are called repetitive sequences and can vary in size from a 100 bp to 1000 bp or more. Furthermore, these sequences have undergone sequence divergence by the addition or deletion of sequences or by changes in the base pair sequence. Thus, the repeated sequences themselves show some divergence. An example of a highly repetitive sequence is the repeat found to be associated with the knob heterochromatin of corn. It ranges from 3-5 x 105 copies on a small knob to 1 x 10^6 on the large knobs. This sequence is unique to knobs and is not found associated with any other heterochromatic regions of corn. An example of a functional repeated sequence in plants is the corn storage proteins, zeins. Two major classes of zeins exist, the 22 and 19 kd classes. Sequence analysis has shown that both classes have the same structure.

Signal Sequence ----- Head ----- Repeat Unit -----Tail

The only difference between the 22 and 19 kd class is the repeat unit. The 22 kd class has 8 repeat units and the 19 kd class has 7 repeat units. Estimates have been made of the number of copies of these genes and 30-50 copies of the 22 kd class are found in the corn genome. Thus, the repeat unit would be represented 240-400 times in the genome.

Copyright © 1998. Phillip McClean