News

Annotation: The genome of a dioecious plant Silene latifolia comprises a giant ~550-megabase Y chromosome, which has remained unsequenced so far. Using a long- and short-read hybrid approach, a high-quality male genome was obtained. Comparative analysis of the sex chromosomes with their homologs in outgroups revealed that the Y is highly rearranged and degenerated. Recombination suppression between X and Y triggered a massive accumulation of repeats . . .

Annotation: A pan-transcriptome describes the transcriptional and post-transcriptional consequences of genome diversity from multiple individuals within a species. In a joint effort of an international consortium consisting of 19 organisations from around the world, barley pan-transcriptome was developed from 20 inbred genotypes representing domesticated barley diversity. To overcome single reference bias in transcript quantification, we constructed . . .

Annotation: The genomes of many plants, animals, and fungi frequently comprise dispensable B chromosomes that rely upon various chromosomal drive mechanisms to counteract the tendency of non-essential genetic elements to be purged over time. The B chromosome of rye undergoes targeted nondisjunction during first pollen mitosis, favouring segregation into the generative nucleus, thus increasing their numbers over generations. Using a newly-assembled . . .

Annotation:  Analysis of exomes from 434 bread wheat accessions (the WHEALBI collection) identified almost 25 thousand putative introgressed segments of at least 2 Mb. The most frequent donor of the introgressions was Triticum timopheevii or its close relatives. Besides, we identified multiple events where distal chromosomal segments of one subgenome were duplicated in the genome and replaced the homoeologous segment in another subgenome, possibly . . .

Annotation:  The genus Pulmonaria (Boraginaceae) represents a taxonomically complex group of species in which morphological similarity contrasts with striking karyological variation. The presence of different numbers of chromosomes in the diploid state suggests multiple hybridization/polyploidization events followed by chromosome rearrangements (dysploidy). Unfortunately, the phylogenetic relationships and evolution of the genome, have not yet been . . .

Czechs are the first in the world to image the chromosome surface structure in its natural state through a new imaging method with multiple applications developed by scientists from the Czech Academy of Sciences' (AV CR) institutes, Brno environmental electron microscopy team head Vilem Nedela said today.  

Annotation:  DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) are a specific type of damage where DNA and a nearby protein become covalently bound. Persisting DPCs interfere with fundamental genetic processes such as DNA replication and transcription. We showed that ZEB covalently traps DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE 1 (MET1) and causes massive accumulation of its DPCs at repetitive 45S rDNA arrays. The understudied mechanism of ZEB-induced DPC repair and the complexity of DNA . . .

Annotation: The majority of cultivated bananas originated from inter- and intra(sub)specific crosses between two wild diploid species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. Hybridization and polyploidization events during the evolution of bananas led to the formation of clonally propagated cultivars characterized by a high level of genome heterozygosity and reduced fertility. The combination of low fertility in edible clones and differences in the . . .

Annotation:  The identification of genes involved in salinity tolerance has primarily focused on model plants and crops. However, plants naturally adapted to highly saline environments offer valuable insights into tolerance to extreme salinity. Salicornia plants grow in coastal salt marshes, stimulated by NaCl. To understand this tolerance, we generated genome sequences of two Salicornia species and analyzed the transcriptomic and proteomic . . .

Annotation: Whole genome duplication and interspecific hybridization are two core processes that underline evolution and speciation in plants. They also represent widely used tools in the plant breeding. Although these two phenomena confer long-term benefits to the plant species, they bring many obstacles to be dealt with in order to stabilize the newly acquired genetic environment. In this study, we examined how newly established polyploids and . . .

Annotation:  Precise localization and dissection of gene promoters are key to understanding transcriptional gene regulation and to future bioengineering applications. In this study, we employed cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) at three embryonic developmental stages in barley to accurately map, annotate, and quantify transcription initiation events. Using novel bioinformatics tools for sequence clustering coupled with annotation of . . .

Annotation: „DNA-protein crosslinks, i.e. proteins covalently attached to DNA molecule represent extremely toxic type of DNA damage, which hinder the essential processes of replication and transcription. Here, we set-up forward-directed genetic screen to identify mutants hypersensitive to DNA protein crosslink inducing chemical zebularine that crosslinks METHYLTRANSFERASE1 (MET1) at 45S rDNA repeats. We mapped HYPERSENSITIVE TO ZEBULARINE 1 (HZE1 . . .

Annotation: Rabl organization is a type of interphase chromosome arrangement with centromeres and telomeres clustering at opposite nuclear poles. In this work we analyzed nuclear morphology and chromosome organization in cycling and endoreduplicated nuclei isolated from embryo and endosperm tissues. We found that dividing nuclei have a round shape, adherent sister chromatids keep an equal amount of CENH3 histone and organize chromosomes according to a . . .

Annotation:  Mitosis and cytokinesis are fundamental processes through which somatic cells increase their numbers and allow plant growth and development. Here, we analyzed the organization and dynamics of mitotic chromosomes, nucleoli, and microtubules in living cells of barley root primary meristems using a series of newly developed stable fluorescent protein translational fusion lines and time-lapse confocal microscopy. The median duration of . . .

Annotation: Early cytological studies indicated that chromatids of mitotic chromosomes coil into a helix but a direct proof for this assumption was missing. Here, we combined Hi-C analysis of purified metaphase chromosomes, biopolymer modelling and spatial structured illumination microscopy to reveal a helically-wound, 400 nm thick chromatin thread forming barley mitotic chromatids. Chromatin from adjacent turns of the helix intermingled due to the . . .