GENETICS OF THE SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY (S-) LOCI

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. I have completed theoretical investigations that resulted in a novel method to create a linkage map of genes near self-incompatibility (S-) locus, which was previously impossible due to suppressed recombination around the region. The new coalescent-based method provided a new tool for investigating how the genomic region of suppressed recombination evolved. (I have submitted a paper--Takebayashi, N., D. E. Wolf, and L. F. Delph, Effect of variation in herkogamy on outcrossing within a population of Gilia achilleifolia). Currently, we are focusing on empirical side of S-locus evolution. In July 2004, I submitted an NSF proposal (Molecular population genetics of the self-incompatibility locus in Papaveraceae) in collaboration with Dr. Diana Wolf, UA Fairbanks. Self-incompatibility (SI) in plants has evolved independently multiple times. This parallel evolution offers a rare opportunity to determine what evolutionary features are general, and occur repeatedly, and what features are simply due to chance or due to specific features of each species in which the trait evolved. Our previous studies found that S-locus of Solanaceae showed an unexpected genealogical shape, which may be due to accumulation of deleterious mutations in the non-recombining region. We proposed to initiate a study of the molecular population genetics of the S-locus in Alaskan poppies, which have a completely different molecular mechanism from Solanaceae SI system. This is a challenging project, but will allow a large break-through in generalizing the evolutionary process of regions under suppressed recombination including Y-chromosome. The project was not funded. With the aid of INBRE seed grant, we have located several populations of Alaskan poppies, and collected seeds from several populations. We are beginning RNA extractions to collect preliminary data for the resubmission of the proposal.