研究実績の概要 |
Transposable Elements are thought to be key drivers of evolution and have most likely contributed to the rewiring of regulatory networks. In particular, we previously argued that non-allelic gene conversion between TEs likely contributes not only to the evolution of TEs, but also to the rewiring of regulatory networks via TEs. The drastic increase in whole-genome sequence data of various different species in the recent years provides the opportunity to understand the evolution of TEs, including the occurrence of non-allelic gene conversion and their contribution to genome evolution, in great detail that was not possible before. In this study, we have been exploring the evolutionary dynamics of TEs by theory, computer simulation using a previously developed framework, and genomic data analysis using genome sequences of various mammal and plant species. In particular, we have been able to show the contribution of the differential activity of different TE families to genome size evolution, genome structure, and centromere evolution in plant species.
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