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Abstract Detail



Bryological and Lichenological Section/ABLS

Shaw, Jonathan [1], Devos, Nicolas [2].

The Sphagnum genome project.

The Joint Genome Institute (JGI) recently accepted our proposal (PI: JShaw, co-PI: David Weston) to sequence the genome of a representative Sphagnum (peatmoss) species to facilitate the use of Sphagnum as a model for research on carbon sequestration, biogeochemistry, and climate change. Sphagnum magellanicum is the species we selected for this project.  S. magellanicum is an important peat-former across most of the Northern Hemisphere, and is also important in some areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including Tierra del Fuego (from where it was originally described).  Sphagnum is the first green plant whose genome is being sequenced explicity for carbon cycle and climate research.  The project is just beginning, but transcriptome data from nine species of Sphagnopsida (Sphagnum, Eosphagnum, Flatbergium) indicate that peatmosses have undergone a whole genome duplication (WGD) during their history.  The same duplication is shared by all three genera, indicating that it occurred in the Sphagnospida stem clade rather than in the Sphagnum lineage per se.  The age of the duplication is estimated to be some 25 ma, after Sphagnopsida diverged from other mosses but before the genera of Sphagnopsida diverged from one another.  We present data on the fates of various paralogous genes relative to their functional (GO) categories.  Rapdly growing genomic resources for Sphagnum are sure to strengthen the value of these plants for both ecological and evolutionary research.


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1 - 130 Science Drive, Box 90338, Durham, NC, 27708, USA, 919/660-7344
2 - Duke University, Biology, 130 Science Drive, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

Keywords:
bryophytes
Sphagnum
whole genome duplication.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 29
Location: River Fork/Grove
Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2014
Time: 1:30 PM
Number: 29001
Abstract ID:169
Candidate for Awards:None


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