Structure and distribution of centromeric retrotransposons at diploid and allotetraploid Coffea centromeric and pericentromeric regions.

Authors: de Castro Nunes, Renata and Orozco-Arias, Simon and Crouzillat, Dominique and Mueller, Lukas A and Strickler, Suzy R and Descombes, Patrick and Fournier, Coralie and Moine, Deborah and de Kochko, Alexandre and Yuyama, Priscila M and Vanzela, André L L and Guyot, Romain

Centromeric regions of plants are generally composed of large array of satellites from a specific lineage ofGypsyLTR-retrotransposons, called Centromeric Retrotransposons. Repeated sequences interact with a specific H3 histone, playing a crucial function on kinetochore formation. To study the structure and composition of centromeric regions in the genusCoffea, we annotated and classified Centromeric Retrotransposons sequences from the allotetraploidC. arabicagenome and its two diploid ancestors:Coffea canephoraandC. eugenioides. Ten distinct CRC (Centromeric Retrotransposons inCoffea) families were found. The sequence mapping and FISH experiments of CRC Reverse Transcriptase domains inC. canephora, C. eugenioides, andC. arabicaclearly indicate a strong and specific targeting mainly onto proximal chromosome regions, which can be associated also with heterochromatin. PacBio genome sequence analyses of putative centromeric regions onC. arabicaandC. canephorachromosomes showed an exceptional density of one family of CRC elements, and the complete absence of satellite arrays, contrasting with usual structure of plant centromeres. Altogether, our data suggest a specific centromere organization inCoffea, contrasting with other plant genomes.

Journal: Frontiers in plant science
DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.00175
Year: 2018

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