Repetitive sequences survey in Eragrostis curvula cDNA ESTs libraries

ROMERO JOSE; SELVA JUAN PABLO; ECHENIQUE VIVIANA C; GARBUS INGRID,

San Diego, CA

Congreso; Plant & Animal Genomes XXII Conference; 2014

ragrostis curvula (Schrad) Nees (weeping lovegrass) represents an important cultivated forage resource in semiarid regions, and the most useful cultivars are tetraploid and reproduce by pseudogamous diplosporous apomixis. We previously produced a series of genetically related E. curvula lines that provide a suitable system for the identification of gene(s) involved in diplosporous apomixis and ploidy, including a natural apomictic tetraploid (T), a diploid sexual line (D) and a tetraploid sexual strain (C). A collection of ESTs was generated from cDNA libraries obtained from panicles of lines D, T and C, and leaves of line T. The present study aimed to analyze the repetitive content of these four cDNA libraries and further identify and characterize transposable element (TE)-containing ESTs. We found that the percentage of repetitive content in the leaf cDNA library was almost double that in inflorescence libraries, with retrotransposons contributing most in all libraries. The expression of TE-containing ESTs was compared in cDNA samples extracted from D, T and C leaves or inflorescences, revealing that six mRNAs containing MuDR-like DNA transposons, Gyspsy-like and Copia-like retrotransposons were differentially represented according to tissue, reproductive mode or ploidy. The present work constitutes the first report on repetitive sequences of Eragrostis curvula at the transcriptome level