Identification of the duplicated segments in rice chromosomes 1 and 5 by linkage analysis of cDNA markers of known functions

Genome organization and botanical diversity

The rich diversity of angiosperms, both the planet's dominant flora and the cornerstone of agriculture, is integrally intertwined with a distinctive evolutionary history. Here, we explore the interplay between angiosperm genome organization and botanical diversity, empowered by genomic approaches ranging from genetic linkage mapping to analysis of gene regulation. Commonality in the genetic hardware of plants has enabled robust comparative genomics that has provided a broad picture of angiosperm evolution and implicated both general processes and specific elements in contributing to botanical diversity. We argue that the hardware of plant genomes-both in content and in dynamics-has been shaped by selection for rather substantial differences in gene regulation between plants and animals such as maize and human, organisms of comparable genome size and gene number. Their distinctive genome content and dynamics may reflect in part the indeterminate development of plants that puts strikingly different demands on gene regulation than in animals. Repeated polyploidization of plant genomes and multiplication of individual genes together with extensive rearrangement and differential retention provide rich raw material for selection of morphological and/or physiological variations conferring fitness in specific niches, whether natural or artificial. These findings exemplify the burgeoning information available to employ in increasing knowledge of plant biology and in modifying selected plants to better meet human needs.

Mutation of Oryza sativa CORONATINE INSENSITIVE 1b (OsCOI1b) delays leaf senescence

Jasmonic acid (JA) functions in plant development, including senescence and immunity. Arabidopsis thaliana CORONATINE INSENSITIVE 1 encodes a JA receptor and functions in the JA-responsive signaling pathway. The Arabidopsis genome harbors a single COI gene, but the rice (Oryza sativa) genome harbors three COI homologs, OsCOI1a, OsCOI1b, and OsCOI2. Thus, it remains unclear whether each OsCOI has distinct, additive, synergistic, or redundant functions in development. Here, we use the oscoi1b-1 knockout mutants to show that OsCOI1b mainly affects leaf senescence under senescence-promoting conditions. oscoi1b-1 mutants stayed green during dark-induced and natural senescence, with substantial retention of chlorophylls and photosynthetic capacity. Furthermore, several senescence-associated genes were downregulated in oscoi1b-1 mutants, including homologs of Arabidopsis thaliana ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 3 and ORESARA 1, important regulators of leaf senescence. These results suggest that crosstalk between JA signaling and ethylene signaling affects leaf senescence. The Arabidopsis coi1-1 plants containing 35S:OsCOI1a or 35S:OsCOI1b rescued the delayed leaf senescence during dark incubation, suggesting that both OsCOI1a and OsCOI1b are required for promoting leaf senescence in rice. oscoi1b-1 mutants showed significant decreases in spikelet fertility and grain weight, leading to severe reduction of grain yield, indicating that OsCOI1-mediated JA signaling affects spikelet fertility and grain filling.

Genome Alignment Spanning Major Poaceae Lineages Reveals Heterogeneous Evolutionary Rates and Alters Inferred Dates for Key Evolutionary Events

Multiple comparisons among genomes can clarify their evolution, speciation, and functional innovations. To date, the genome sequences of eight grasses representing the most economically important Poaceae (grass) clades have been published, and their genomic-level comparison is an essential foundation for evolutionary, functional, and translational research. Using a formal and conservative approach, we aligned these genomes. Direct comparison of paralogous gene pairs all duplicated simultaneously reveal striking variation in evolutionary rates among whole genomes, with nucleotide substitution slowest in rice and up to 48% faster in other grasses, adding a new dimension to the value of rice as a grass model. We reconstructed ancestral genome contents for major evolutionary nodes, potentially contributing to understanding the divergence and speciation of grasses. Recent fossil evidence suggests revisions of the estimated dates of key evolutionary events, implying that the pan-grass polyploidization occurred ∼96 million years ago and could not be related to the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction as previously inferred. Adjusted dating to reflect both updated fossil evidence and lineage-specific evolutionary rates suggested that maize subgenome divergence and maize-sorghum divergence were virtually simultaneous, a coincidence that would be explained if polyploidization directly contributed to speciation. This work lays a solid foundation for Poaceae translational genomics.

Identification, nomenclature, and evolutionary relationships of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) genes in soybean

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) genes in eukaryotes regulate various developmental and physiological processes including those associated with biotic and abiotic stresses. Although MAPKs in some plant species including Arabidopsis have been identified, they are yet to be identified in soybean. Major objectives of this study were to identify GmMAPKs, assess their evolutionary relationships, and analyze their functional divergence. We identified a total of 38 MAPKs, eleven MAPKKs, and 150 MAPKKKs in soybean. Within the GmMAPK family, we also identified a new clade of six genes: four genes with TEY and two genes with TQY motifs requiring further investigation into possible legume-specific functions. The results indicated the expansion of the GmMAPK families attributable to the ancestral polyploidy events followed by chromosomal rearrangements. The GmMAPK and GmMAPKKK families were substantially larger than those in other plant species. The duplicated GmMAPK members presented complex evolutionary relationships and functional divergence when compared to their counterparts in Arabidopsis. We also highlighted existing nomenclatural issues, stressing the need for nomenclatural consistency. GmMAPK identification is vital to soybean crop improvement, and novel insights into the evolutionary relationships will enhance our understanding about plant genome evolution.

The 'inner circle' of the cereal genomes

Early marker-based macrocolinearity studies between the grass genomes led to arranging their chromosomes into concentric 'crop circles' of synteny blocks that initially consisted of 30 rice-independent linkage groups representing the ancestral cereal genome structure. Recently, increased marker density and genome sequencing of several cereal genomes allowed the characterization of intragenomic duplications and their integration with intergenomic colinearity data to identify paleo-duplications and propose a model for the evolution of the grass genomes from a common ancestor. On the basis of these data an 'inner circle' comprising five ancestral chromosomes was defined providing a new reference for the grass chromosomes and new insights into their ancestral relationships and origin, as well as an efficient tool to design cross-genome markers for genetic studies.

Structure and expression analysis of rice paleo duplications

Having a well-known history of genome duplication, rice is a good model for studying structural and functional evolution of paleo duplications. Improved sequence alignment criteria were used to characterize 10 major chromosome-to-chromosome duplication relationships associated with 1440 paralogous pairs, covering 47.8% of the rice genome, with 12.6% of genes that are conserved within sister blocks. Using a micro-array experiment, a genome-wide expression map has been produced, in which 2382 genes show significant differences of expression in root, leaf and grain. By integrating both structural (1440 paralogous pairs) and functional information (2382 differentially expressed genes), we identified 115 paralogous gene pairs for which at least one copy is differentially expressed in one of the three tissues. A vast majority of the 115 paralogous gene pairs have been neofunctionalized or subfunctionalized as 88%, 89% and 96% of duplicates, respectively, expressed in grain, leaf and root show distinct expression patterns. On the basis of a Gene Ontology analysis, we have identified and characterized the gene families that have been structurally and functionally preferentially retained in the duplication showing that the vast majority (>85%) of duplicated have been either lost or have been subfunctionalized or neofunctionalized during 50–70 million years of evolution.

Comparative mapping of DNA sequences in rye (Secale cereale L.) in relation to the rice genome

The rice genome has proven a valuable resource for comparative approaches to address individual genomic regions in Triticeae species at the molecular level. To exploit this resource for rye genetics and breeding, an inventory was made of EST-derived markers with known genomic positions in rye, which were related with those in rice. As a first inventory set, 92 EST-SSR markers were mapped which had been drawn from a non-redundant rye EST collection representing 5,423 unigenes and 2.2 Mb of DNA. Using a BC1 mapping population which involved an exotic rye accession as donor parent, these EST-SSR markers were arranged in a linkage map together with 25 genomic SSR markers as well as 131 AFLP and four STS markers. This map comprises seven linkage groups corresponding to the seven rye chromosomes and covers 724 cM of the rye genome. For comparative studies, additional inventory sets of EST-based markers were included which originated from the rye-mapping data published by other authors. Altogether, 502 EST-based markers with known chromosomal localizations in rye were used for BlastN search and 334 of them could be in silico mapped in the rice genome. Additionally, 14 markers were included which lacked sequence information but had been genetically mapped in rice. Based on the 348 markers, each of the seven rye chromosomes could be aligned with distinct portions of the rice genome, providing improved insight into the status of the rye-rice genome relationships. Furthermore, the aligned markers provide genomic anchor points between rye and rice, enabling the identification of conserved ortholog set markers for rye. Perspectives of rice as a model for genome analysis in rye are discussed.

Identification and characterization of shared duplications between rice and wheat provide new insight into grass genome evolution

The grass family comprises the most important cereal crops and is a good system for studying, with comparative genomics, mechanisms of evolution, speciation, and domestication. Here, we identified and characterized the evolution of shared duplications in the rice (Oryza sativa) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) genomes by comparing 42,654 rice gene sequences with 6426 mapped wheat ESTs using improved sequence alignment criteria and statistical analysis. Intraspecific comparisons identified 29 interchromosomal duplications covering 72% of the rice genome and 10 duplication blocks covering 67.5% of the wheat genome. Using the same methodology, we assessed orthologous relationships between the two genomes and detected 13 blocks of colinearity that represent 83.1 and 90.4% of the rice and wheat genomes, respectively. Integration of the intraspecific duplications data with colinearity relationships revealed seven duplicated segments conserved at orthologous positions. A detailed analysis of the length, composition, and divergence time of these duplications and comparisons with sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and maize (Zea mays) indicated common and lineage-specific patterns of conservation between the different genomes. This allowed us to propose a model in which the grass genomes have evolved from a common ancestor with a basic number of five chromosomes through a series of whole genome and segmental duplications, chromosome fusions, and translocations.

A microcolinearity study at the earliness per se gene Eps-A(m)1 region reveals an ancient duplication that preceded the wheat-rice divergence

Wheat flowering is controlled by numerous genes, which respond to environmental signals such as photoperiod and vernalization. Earliness per se (Eps) genes control flowering time independently of these environmental cues and are responsible for the fine tuning of flowering time. We recently mapped the Eps-A(m)1 gene on the end of Triticum monococcum chromosome arm 1A(m)L. As a part of our efforts to clone Eps-A(m)1 we developed PCR markers flanking this gene within a 2.7 cM interval. We screened more than one thousand gametes with these markers and identified 27 lines with recombination between them. Recombinant lines were used to generate a high-density map and to investigate the microcolinearity between wheat and rice in this region. We mapped ten genes from a 149 kb region located at the distal part of rice chromosome 5 (cdo393 - Ndk3) on a 3.7 cM region on wheat chromosome one. This region is part of an ancient duplication between rice chromosomes 5 and 1. Genes present in both rice chromosomes were less similar to each other than to the closest wheat orthologues, suggesting that this duplication preceded the divergence between wheat and rice. This hypothesis was supported by the presence of 18 loci duplicated both in rice chromosomes 5 and 1 and in the colinear wheat chromosomes from homologous groups 1 and 3. Independent gene deletions in wheat and rice lineages explain the alternations of colinearity between rice chromosome 5 and wheat chromosomes 1 and 3. Colinearity between the end of rice chromosome 5 and wheat chromosome 1 was also interrupted by a small inversion, and several non-colinear genes. These results suggest that the distal region of the long arm of wheat chromosome 1 was involved in numerous changes that differentiated wheat and rice genomes. This comparative study provided sufficient markers to saturate the Eps-A(m)1 gene region and to precisely map this gene within a 0.9 cM interval flanked by the VatpC and Smp loci.

Chromosome evolution in eukaryotes: a multi-kingdom perspective

In eukaryotes, chromosomal rearrangements, such as inversions, translocations and duplications, are common and range from part of a gene to hundreds of genes. Lineage-specific patterns are also seen: translocations are rare in dipteran flies, and angiosperm genomes seem prone to polyploidization. In most eukaryotes, there is a strong association between rearrangement breakpoints and repeat sequences. Current data suggest that some repeats promoted rearrangements via non-allelic homologous recombination, for others the association might not be causal but reflects the instability of particular genomic regions. Rearrangement polymorphisms in eukaryotes are correlated with phenotypic differences, so are thought to confer varying fitness in different habitats. Some seem to be under positive selection because they either trap favorable allele combinations together or alter the expression of nearby genes. There is little evidence that chromosomal rearrangements cause speciation, but they probably intensify reproductive isolation between species that have formed by another route.

Comparative physical mapping links conservation of microsynteny to chromosome structure and recombination in grasses

Nearly finished sequences for model organisms provide a foundation from which to explore genomic diversity among other taxonomic groups. We explore genome-wide microsynteny patterns between the rice sequence and two sorghum physical maps that integrate genetic markers, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) fingerprints, and BAC hybridization data. The sorghum maps largely tile a genomic component containing 41% of BACs but 80% of single-copy genes that shows conserved microsynteny with rice and partially tile a nonsyntenic component containing 46% of BACs but only 13% of single-copy genes. The remaining BACs are centromeric (4%) or unassigned (8%). The two genomic components correspond to cytologically discernible "euchromatin" and "heterochromatin." Gene and repetitive DNA distributions support this classification. Greater microcolinearity in recombinogenic (euchromatic) than nonrecombinogenic (heterochromatic) regions is consistent with the hypothesis that genomic rearrangements are usually deleterious, thus more likely to persist in nonrecombinogenic regions by virtue of Muller's ratchet. Interchromosomal centromeric rearrangements may have fostered diploidization of a polyploid cereal progenitor. Model plant sequences better guide studies of related genomes in recombinogenic than nonrecombinogenic regions. Bridging of 35 physical gaps in the rice sequence by sorghum BAC contigs illustrates reciprocal benefits of comparative approaches that extend at least across the cereals and perhaps beyond.

The Genomes of Oryza sativa: a history of duplications

We report improved whole-genome shotgun sequences for the genomes of indica and japonica rice, both with multimegabase contiguity, or almost 1,000-fold improvement over the drafts of 2002. Tested against a nonredundant collection of 19,079 full-length cDNAs, 97.7% of the genes are aligned, without fragmentation, to the mapped super-scaffolds of one or the other genome. We introduce a gene identification procedure for plants that does not rely on similarity to known genes to remove erroneous predictions resulting from transposable elements. Using the available EST data to adjust for residual errors in the predictions, the estimated gene count is at least 38,000–40,000. Only 2%–3% of the genes are unique to any one subspecies, comparable to the amount of sequence that might still be missing. Despite this lack of variation in gene content, there is enormous variation in the intergenic regions. At least a quarter of the two sequences could not be aligned, and where they could be aligned, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rates varied from as little as 3.0 SNP/kb in the coding regions to 27.6 SNP/kb in the transposable elements. A more inclusive new approach for analyzing duplication history is introduced here. It reveals an ancient whole-genome duplication, a recent segmental duplication on Chromosomes 11 and 12, and massive ongoing individual gene duplications. We find 18 distinct pairs of duplicated segments that cover 65.7% of the genome; 17 of these pairs date back to a common time before the divergence of the grasses. More important, ongoing individual gene duplications provide a never-ending source of raw material for gene genesis and are major contributors to the differences between members of the grass family.

Comparative genome sequencing of indica and japonica rice reveals that duplication of genes and genomic regions has played a major part in the evolution of grass genomes

Two ancient rounds of polyploidy in rice genome

An ancient genome duplication (PPP1) that predates divergence of the cereals has recently been recognized. We report here another potentially older large-scale duplication (PPP2) event that predates monocot-dicot divergence in the genome of rice (Oryza sativa L.), as inferred from the age distribution of pairs of duplicate genes based on recent genome data for rice. Our results suggest that paleopolyploidy was widespread and played an important role in the evolution of rice.

Comparative genome analysis of monocots and dicots, toward characterization of angiosperm diversity

The importance of angiosperms to sustaining humanity by providing a wide range of 'ecosystem services' warrants increased exploration of their genomic diversity. The nearly completed sequences for two species representing the major angiosperm subclasses, specifically the dicot Arabidopsis thaliana and the monocot Oryza sativa, provide a foundation for comparative analysis across the angiosperms. The angiosperms also exemplify some challenges to be faced as genomics makes new inroads into describing biotic diversity, in particular polyploidy (genome-wide chromatin duplication), and much larger genome sizes than have been studied to date.

Close split of sorghum and maize genome progenitors

It is generally believed that maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays) arose as a tetraploid; however, the two progenitor genomes cannot be unequivocally traced within the genome of modern maize. We have taken a new approach to investigate the origin of the maize genome. We isolated and sequenced large genomic fragments from the regions surrounding five duplicated loci from the maize genome and their orthologous loci in sorghum, and then we compared these sequences with the orthologous regions in the rice genome. Within the studied segments, we identified 11 genes that were conserved in location, order, and orientation. We performed phylogenetic and distance analyses and examined the patterns of estimated times of divergence for sorghum and maize gene orthologs and also the time of divergence for maize orthologs. Our results support a tetraploid origin of maize. This analysis also indicates contemporaneous divergence of the ancestral sorghum genome and the two maize progenitor genomes about 11.9 million years ago (Mya). On the basis of a putative conversion event detected for one of the genes, tetraploidization must have occurred before 4.8 Mya, and therefore, preceded the major maize genome expansion by gene amplification and retrotransposition.

Structure and evolution of cereal genomes

The cereal species, of central importance to our diet, began to diverge 50-70 million years ago. For the past few thousand years, these species have undergone largely parallel selection regimes associated with domestication and improvement. The rice genome sequence provides a platform for organizing information about diverse cereals, and together with genetic maps and sequence samples from other cereals is yielding new insights into both the shared and the independent dimensions of cereal evolution. New data and population-based approaches are identifying genes that have been involved in cereal improvement. Reduced-representation sequencing promises to accelerate gene discovery in many large-genome cereals, and to better link the under-explored genomes of 'orphan' cereals with state-of-the-art knowledge.

Ancient polyploidization predating divergence of the cereals, and its consequences for comparative genomics

Integration of structural genomic data from a largely assembled rice genome sequence, with phylogenetic analysis of sequence samples for many other taxa, suggests that a polyploidization event occurred approximately 70 million years ago, before the divergence of the major cereals from one another but after the divergence of the Poales from the Liliales and Zingiberales. Ancient polyploidization and subsequent "diploidization" (loss) of many duplicated gene copies has thus shaped the genomes of all Poaceae cereal, forage, and biomass crops. The Poaceae appear to have evolved as separate lineages for approximately 50 million years, or two-thirds of the time since the duplication event. Chromosomes that are predicted to be homoeologs resulting from this ancient duplication event account for a disproportionate share of incongruent loci found by comparison of the rice sequence to a detailed sorghum sequence-tagged site-based genetic map. Differential gene loss during diploidization may have contributed many of these incongruities. Such predicted homoeologs also account for a disproportionate share of duplicated sorghum loci, further supporting the hypothesis that the polyploidization event was common to sorghum and rice. Comparative gene orders along paleo-homoeologous chromosomal segments provide a means to make phylogenetic inferences about chromosome structural rearrangements that differentiate among the grasses. Superimposition of the timing of major duplication events on taxonomic relationships leads to improved understanding of comparative gene orders, enhancing the value of data from botanical models for crop improvement and for further exploration of genomic biodiversity. Additional ancient duplication events probably remain to be discovered in other angiosperm lineages.

New in silico insight into the synteny between rice (Oryza sativa L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) highlights reshuffling and identifies new duplications in the rice genome

A unigene set of 1411 contigs was constructed from 2629 redundant maize expressed sequence tags (ESTs) mapped on the maizeDB genetic map. Rice orthologous sequences were identified by blast alignment against the rice genomic sequence. A total of 1046 (74%) maize contigs were associated with their corresponding homologues in the rice genome and 656 (47%) defined as potential orthologous relationships. One hundred and seventeen (8%) maize EST contigs mapped to two distinct loci on the maize genetic map, reflecting the tetraploid nature of the maize genome. Among 492 mono-locus contigs, 344 (484 redundant ESTs) identify collinear blocks between maize chromosomes 2 and 4 and a single rice chromosome, defining six new collinear regions. Fine-scale analysis of collinearity between rice chromosomes 1 and 5 with maize chromosomes 3, 6 and 8 shows the presence of internal rearrangements within collinear regions. Mapping of maize contigs to two distinct loci on the rice sequence identifies five new duplication events in rice. Detailed analysis of a duplication between rice chromosomes 1 and 5 shows that 11% of the annotated genes from the chromosome 1 locus are found duplicated on the chromosome 5 paralogous counterpart, indicating a high degree of re-organisations. The implications of these findings for map-based cloning in collinear regions are discussed.

In silico comparative analysis reveals a mosaic conservation of genes within a novel colinear region in wheat chromosome 1AS and rice chromosome 5S

Comparative RFLP mapping has revealed extensive conservation of marker order in different grass genomes. However, microcolinearity studies at the sequence level have shown rapid genome evolution and many exceptions to colinearity. Most of these studies have focused on a limited size of genomic fragment and the extent of microcolinearity over large distances or across entire genomes remains poorly characterized in grasses. Here, we have investigated the microcolinearity between the rice genome and a total of 1,500 kb from physical BAC contigs on wheat chromosome 1AS. Using ESTs mapped in wheat chromosome bins as an additional source of physical data, we have identified 27 conserved orthologous sequences between wheat chromosome 1AS and a region of 1,210 kb located on rice chromosome 5S. Our results extend the orthology described earlier between wheat chromosome group 1S and rice chromosome 5S. Microcolinearity was found to be frequently disrupted by rearrangements which must have occurred after the divergence of wheat and rice. At the Lr10 orthologous loci, microrearrangements were due to the insertion of mobile elements, but also originated from gene movement, amplification, deletion and inversion. These mechanisms of genome evolution are at the origin of the mosaic conservation observed between the orthologous regions. Finally, in silico mapping of wheat genes identified an intragenomic colinearity between fragments from rice chromosome 1L and 5S, suggesting an ancestral segmental duplication in rice.

A High-Density Genetic Recombination Map of Sequence-Tagged Sites for Sorghum, as a Framework for Comparative Structural and Evolutionary Genomics of Tropical Grains and Grasses

We report a genetic recombination map for Sorghum of 2512 loci spaced at average 0.4 cM (∼300 kb) intervals based on 2050 RFLP probes, including 865 heterologous probes that foster comparative genomics of Saccharum (sugarcane), Zea (maize), Oryza (rice), Pennisetum (millet, buffelgrass), the Triticeae (wheat, barley, oat, rye), and Arabidopsis. Mapped loci identify 61.5% of the recombination events in this progeny set and reveal strong positive crossover interference acting across intervals of ≤50 cM. Significant variations in DNA marker density are related to possible centromeric regions and to probable chromosome structural rearrangements between Sorghum bicolor and S. propinquum, but not to variation in levels of intraspecific allelic richness. While cDNA and genomic clones are similarly distributed across the genome, SSR-containing clones show different abundance patterns. Rapidly evolving hypomethylated DNA may contribute to intraspecific genomic differentiation. Nonrandom distribution patterns of multiple loci detected by 357 probes suggest ancient chromosomal duplication followed by extensive rearrangement and gene loss. Exemplifying the value of these data for comparative genomics, we support and extend prior findings regarding maize-sorghum synteny—in particular, 45% of comparative loci fall outside the inferred colinear/syntenic regions, suggesting that many small rearrangements have occurred since maize-sorghum divergence. These genetically anchored sequence-tagged sites will foster many structural, functional and evolutionary genomic studies in major food, feed, and biomass crops.

Locus-specific contig assembly in highly-duplicated genomes, using the BAC-RF method

Polyploidy, the presence of multiple sets of chromosomes that are similar but not identical, complicates both chromosome walking and assembly of sequence-ready contigs for many plant taxa including a large number of economically-significant crops. Traditional 'dot-blot hybridization' or PCR-based assays for identifying BAC clones corresponding to a mapped DNA landmark usually do not provide sufficient information to distinguish between allelic and non-allelic loci. A restriction fragment matching method using pools of BAC DNA in combination with dot-blots reveals the locus specificity of individual BACs that correspond to multi-locus DNA probes, in a manner that can efficiently be applied on a large scale. This approach also provides an alternative means of mapping DNA loci that exploits many advantages of 'radiation hybrid' mapping in taxa for which such hybrids are not available. The BAC-RF method is a practical and reliable approach for using high-density RFLP maps to anchor sequence-ready BAC contigs in highly-duplicated genomes, provides an alternative to high-density robotic gridding for screening BAC libraries when the necessary equipment is not available, and permits the expedient isolation of individual members of multigene or repetitive DNA families for a wide range of genetic and evolutionary investigations.

High gene density is conserved at syntenic loci of small and large grass genomes

Comparative genomic analysis at the genetic-map level has shown extensive conservation of the gene order between the different grass genomes in many chromosomal regions. However, little is known about the gene organization in grass genomes at the microlevel. Comparison of gene-coding regions between maize, rice, and sorghum showed that the distance between the genes is correlated with the genome size. We have investigated the microcolinearity at Lrk gene loci in the genomes of four grass species: wheat, barley, maize, and rice. The Lrk genes, which encode receptor-like kinases, were found to be consistently associated with another type of receptor-like kinase (Tak) on chromosome groups 1 and 3 in Triticeae and on chromosomes homoeologous to Triticeae group 3 in the other grass genomes. On Triticeae chromosome group 1, Tak and Lrk together with genes putatively encoding NBS/LRR proteins form a cluster of genes possibly involved in signal transduction. Comparison of the gene composition at orthologous Lrk loci in wheat, barley, and rice revealed a maximal gene density of one gene per 4-5 kb, very similar to the gene density in Arabidopsis thaliana. We conclude that small and large grass genomes contain regions that are highly enriched in genes with very little or no repetitive DNA. The comparison of the gene organization suggested various genome rearrangements during the evolution of the different grass species.

RNA maturation of the rice SPK gene may involve trans-splicing

A gene encoding a calcium-dependent seed-specific protein kinase (SPK) is abundantly expressed in developing rice seeds (Kawasaki, T et al. Gene (1993) 129, 183-189). Rice genomic clones encoding SPK were isolated using the entire cDNA fragment as a probe. Physical mapping of these genomic clones indicated that the genomic region corresponding to the entire cDNA was divided into two different regions, SPK-A and SPK-B, located on different rice chromosomes. The results of RACE-PCR analyses showed that the respective transcripts from SPK-A and SPK-B contained additional sequences which were not found in the SPK cDNA, and that these sequences were removed like introns during maturation of the SPK mRNA. These results suggest that two different RNAs were independently transcribed from SPK-A and SPK-B and joined, possibly by trans-splicing.