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Telomere lengths in plants are correlated with flowering time variation

View ORCID ProfileJae Young Choi, Michael D. Purugganan
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.04.188102
Jae Young Choi
aCenter for Genomics and Systems Biology, Department of Biology, 12 Waverly Place, New York University, New York, NY USA
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  • ORCID record for Jae Young Choi
  • For correspondence: jyc387@nyu.edu mp132@nyu.edu
Michael D. Purugganan
aCenter for Genomics and Systems Biology, Department of Biology, 12 Waverly Place, New York University, New York, NY USA
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  • For correspondence: jyc387@nyu.edu mp132@nyu.edu
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Abstract

Telomeres are highly repetitive tandemly repeating DNA sequences found at chromosomal ends that protect chromosomes from deterioration during cell division. Using whole genome re-sequencing data, we found substantial natural intraspecific variation in telomere lengths in Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa (rice) and Zea mays (maize). Genome-wide association mapping in A. thaliana identifies a region that includes the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene as underlying telomere length variation. TERT appears to exist in two haplotype groups (L and S), of which the L haplogroup allele shows evidence of a selective sweep in Arabidopsis. We find that telomere length is negatively correlated with flowering time variation not only in A. thaliana, but also in maize and rice, indicating a link between life history traits and chromosome integrity. We suggest that longer telomeres may be more adaptive in plants that have faster developmental rates (and therefore flower earlier), and that chromosomal structure itself is an adaptive trait associated with plant life history strategies.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted July 06, 2020.
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Telomere lengths in plants are correlated with flowering time variation
Jae Young Choi, Michael D. Purugganan
bioRxiv 2020.07.04.188102; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.04.188102
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Telomere lengths in plants are correlated with flowering time variation
Jae Young Choi, Michael D. Purugganan
bioRxiv 2020.07.04.188102; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.04.188102

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