TS. Schwarzacher T. 2016. Preparation and fluorescent analysis of plant metaphase chromosomes. Chapter 7. In: Plant Cell Division: Methods and Protocols, ed Caillaud M-C; Methods in Molecular Biology 1370: 87-103. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-3142-2_7. Humana Press, Springer, New York. Local Copy: Chromosome Preparation. Trude Schwarzacher. http://www.molcyt.com Good preparations are essential for informative analysis of both somatic and…
Tag: evolution
The diversification and activity of hAT transposons in Musa genomes
Menzel G, Heitkam T, Seibt KM, Nouroz F, Müller-Stoerme M, Heslop-Harrison JS, Schmidt T. 2014. The diversification and activity of hAT transposons in Musa genomes. Chromosome Research 22: 559–571. DOI 10.1007/s10577-014-9445-5 and Pubmed link ID: 25377178 And author print hATs in Musa _2014_CR_MenzelEtAlAuthorVersion2014. Sequencing of plant genomes often identified the hAT superfamily as largest group of DNA…
Evidence of convergent evolution in humans and macaques supports an adaptive role for copy number variation of the β-defensin-2 gene
Ottolini B, Hornsby MJ, Abujaber R, Macarthur JA, Badge RM, Schwarzacher T, Albertson DG, Bevins CL, Solnick JV, Hollox EJ. 2014. Evidence of convergent evolution in humans and macaques supports an adaptive role for copy number variation of the β-defensin-2 gene. Genome Biology and Evolution 6(11): 3025-3038. DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evu236 β-defensins are a family of important peptides of…
Chromosomal evolution in Brachiaria forage grasses with Fabiola Carvalho Santos
Fabiola Santos from University of Londrina, Brazil, is working on the Chromosomal evolution and the organization of repetitive DNA sequences in diploid and polyploid Brachiaria forage grasses in the molecular cytogenetics group in Leicester. Brachiaria is most important cultivated forage grass genus in Brazil (with billion-dollar production), and the genus includes diploid and polyploid species with similar…
Wild banana species: their classification and the sequencing of Musa balbisiana
Crop relatives are important – we learn about the relationships of wild germplasm in comparison to the domesticated forms, and about the genetics and genes in the wild species. Two papers in the last month advance our understanding of wild banana (Musa) from different perspectives. The first presents “A draft Musa balbisiana genome sequence for…
Faisal Nouroz : Collaborator from Hazara University, Pakistan on genome organization
Dr Faisal Nouroz completed his PhD at the University of Leicester in 2012, working on mobile element evolution in two contrasting crop groups, Musa and Brassica. Dr. Faisal Nouroz held a Ph.D scholarship from the Higher Education Commission and Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan and joined the Molecular Cytogenetics Lab, Department of Biology, University of Leicester…
100 years after Sturtevant and the linear order of genes on chromosomes: an ECA cytogenetics session
Among the exciting Plenary Sessions at the European Cytogeneticists Association conference in Dublin – #ECA2013 – one marked 100 years since publication of Alfred H Sturtevant’s landmark research paper presenting the first genetic map of a chromosome (1913: J. Exp. Zool., 14 (1), 43-9. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jez.1400140104 but see http://www.esp.org/foundations/genetics/classical/holdings/s/ahs-13.pdf for the original paper and a commentary by Robert J. Robbins). In his…
Repetitive DNA in tetraploid peanut and its evolution from diploid Arachis
302. Bertioli DJ, Vidigal B, Nielen S, Ratnaparkhe MB, Lee T-JH, Leal-Bertioli SCM, Kim C, Guimaraes PM, Seijo G, Schwarzacher T, Paterson AH, Heslop-Harrison P, Araujo ACG. 2013. The repetitive component of the A genome of peanut (Arachis hypogaea) and its role in remodelling intergenic sequence space since its evolutionary divergence from the B genome. Annals…
Repetitive DNA in the edible button mushroom
I have a mental picture of the structure of a typical plant genome and typical animal genome, with their transposons (DNA and RNA), tandemly-repeated satellite sequences, minisatellites, microsatellites and other repeats. From this paper, I have a view of repeats in the second most important edible fungus (after yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae), the button mushroom Agaricus bisporus. Its genome, with n=13 chromosomes,…
Mateus Mondin University of Sao Paulo Brazil: collaborator
We are collaborating with Professor Doctor Mateus Mondin from the University of São Paulo, ESALQ, Piracicaba, Brazil, on repetitive DNA evolution in Medicago DNA sequences, and its contribution to genome evolution and variation. The environmental, nutritional (animal, and plant through nitrogen fixation) and economic importance of this family, combined with the availability of large amounts of legume DNA…
Traits with ecological functions
298. Heslop-Harrison JS. 2012. Traits with ecological functions. Annals of Botany, 110 (1), 139-140. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs139 (free access) Individual plant species thrive in specific environments, some growing well across a wide area, others being restricted to survival in very narrow ecological niches. Within a niche, a species must compete for space, light and other resources with the same and other…
How genomes evolve and their future
296. Heslop-Harrison JS. 2012. Genome evolution: extinction, continuation or explosion? Current Opinion in Plant Biology 15:115–121. Subscription: http://dx.DOI.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2012.03.006. Free Author self-archive preprint here. – Genome-scale evolution involves mutation, chromosomal rearrangements, hybridization and polyploidy – Repeated sequences, not genes, can be localized or dispersed in the genome and make up most of the DNA – Evolutionary processes…
Welcome to the MolCyt Molecular Cytogenetics blog
Welcome to the Molecular Cytogenetics http://www.MolCyt.org blog site. This blog feeds to the http://www.molcyt.com website and provides updates. Blog posts are in categories of Publications, Research, People/Collaborators, Conferences, Teaching, Social Media, Editing, Methods, and News/Press.
Molecular cytogenetics, genome evolution and agricultural genomics 