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Published online on July 11, 2005, 10.1073/pnas.0504713102
PNAS | July 19, 2005 | vol. 102 | no. 29 | 9993-9994


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COMMENTARY
Helitrons contribute to the lack of gene colinearity observed in modern maize inbreds

Shailesh K. Lal *, and L. Curtis Hannah {dagger}, {ddagger}

*Department of Biological Sciences, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309-4401; and {dagger}Department of Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

Until recently, it was assumed that the order of gene sequences within modern maize would be virtually invariant. Recent discoveries have shown that gene colinearity is not always the case. Several laboratories (1-3) have found DNA regions rich in gene sequences that are present in some maize inbred lines but absent at homologous sites in other lines. This variation, termed "intraspecific violation of genetic colinearity" or "plus/minus genetic polymorphism," was shown by Lai et al. (4) in a recent issue of PNAS to be caused by a newly described transposable element family termed Helitrons.


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  		Fig. 1. Conceptual display of Helitron-mediated violation of gene colinearity among different maize lines. Hypothetical variable haplotypes of three maize inbreds are shown. The wild-type genes are numbered, and their exons are black boxes. Helitron insertions are red lines, and the exons of genes captured by Helitrons are shown as colored boxes. The 3' palindromes of the Helitrons are shown as loops. The "vacant sites" in lines lacking Helitron insertions found in other lines are marked by red arrowheads.

Lai et al. (4) revisited the 110-kb region of chromosome 9, which contains a number of genes, most notably the well characterized bronze-1 locus. Earlier work by this group (1) showed that whereas the inbred McC (for McClintock) contained sequences of 10 genes in this region, only 6 of these genes were present in this region in B73, the model inbred chosen for complete DNA sequencing. In addition, hybridization experiments showed that other lines exhibited plus/minus polymorphisms for these four gene sequences that were different from McC or B73.

Lai et al. (4) showed that the presence of two Helitrons in McC and their absence in B73 totally accounts . . . [Full Text of this Article]

{ddagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hannah@mail.ifas.ufl.edu.


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Companion article to this Commentary:

From the Cover: Gene movement by Helitron transposons contributes to the haplotype variability of maize
Jinsheng Lai, Yubin Li, Joachim Messing, and Hugo K. Dooner
PNAS 2005 102: 9068-9073. [Abstract] [Full Text]  



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