Genotypic and Somatic Variation in Plants

这项拟议的研究是对植物体细胞突变和快速基因组变化研究的继续。在之前的拨款下完成的工作记录了几种植物的体细胞变异。研究了一枝黄花无性系间核糖体DNA的差异以及蒲公英有性子代间核糖体DNA和乙醇脱氢酶的变化。此外，以前的工作记录了蒲公英后代中对环境压力做出反应的这种灵活的基因组。最后，发展了植物物种的小卫星DNA分析技术，并将其应用于苹果的体细胞变异。本文提出的工作将通过检测甘蓝属植物在热激过程中的基因组变化以及核糖体DNA基因来扩展对基因组快速变化的研究。基因组变化对植物表型和适合度的影响也将被确定。对体细胞变异的研究将继续进行，分析长白松个体内的小卫星DNA变异。这些拟议的研究将提供有关植物种群体细胞遗传变异的类型和频率的基本数据，并确定这种变化的表型和适合度结果。这项工作的结果将为评估这种体细胞过程对植物物种进化的重要性提供基础。此外，体细胞变异存在于所有生物体中，并与正常的衰老过程以及肿瘤的发展有关。这项拟议的工作将提供关于累积的体细胞变异影响的详细信息，这可能有助于研究人类年龄相关的基因变化。

The proposed research is a continuation of studies on somatic mutation and rapid genomic change in plants. Work accomplished under that previous grant documented somatic variation in several plant species. Differences in ribosomal DNA within clones of Solidago and somatic changes among a sexual progeny of Taraxacum officinale in ribosomal DNA and alcohol dehydrogenase were detected. In addition, the previous work documented such flexible genomes within Taraxacum progeny which responded to environmental pressure. Finally, techniques were developed for minisatellite DNA analysis of plant species and applied to somatic variation among apples. The work proposed here will extend studies of rapid genomic change by examining genomic changes in heat-shock as well as ribosomal DNA genes in Brassica. The effect of genomic changes on plant phenotype and fitness will also be determined. Studies of somatic variation will continue with an analysis of minisatellite DNA variation within individuals of Pinus longaeva. These proposed studies will provide fundamental data on the types and frequency of somatic genetic variation in plant populations and determine the phenotypic and fitness consequence of such changes. The results of this work will provide a basis for assessing the importance of such somatic processes for the evolution of plant species. Moreover, somatic variation occurs in all organisms, and has been implicated in the normal aging process, as well as the development of tumors. The proposed work will provide detailed information about the effect of accumulated somatic variation, which could be of use in studying age-dependent genetic changes in humans.//