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Copy number variation in potato – an asexually propagated autotetraploid species
Author(s) -
Iovene Marina,
Zhang Tao,
Lou Qunfeng,
Buell C. Robin,
Jiang Jiming
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/tpj.12200
Subject(s) - biology , polyploid , copy number variation , bacterial artificial chromosome , cultivar , ploidy , chromosome , genetic variation , genome , gene , genetics , botany
Summary Copy number variation ( CNV ) has been revealed as a significant contributor to the genetic variation in humans. Although CNV has been reported in several model animal and plant species, the presence of CNV and its biological impact in polyploid species has not yet been documented. We conducted a fluorescence in situ hybridization ( FISH )‐based CNV survey in potato, a vegetatively propagated autotetraploid species (2 n = 4x = 48). We conducted FISH analysis using 18 randomly selected potato bacterial artificial chromosome ( BAC ) clones in a set of 16 potato cultivars with diverse breeding backgrounds. Six BAC s (33%) with insert sizes of 137–145 kb were found to be associated with large CNV events detectable at the cytological level. We demonstrate that the large CNV s associated with two specific BAC s ( RH 102I10 and RH 83C08) were widespread among potato cultivars developed in North America and Europe. We measured the transcript abundance of four genes associated with the CNV spanned by BAC RH 102I10. All four genes displayed a dosage effect in transcription. Although potato is vegetatively propagated, we observed that female gametes lacking the RH 102I10‐associated CNV were inferior to those with at least one copy of this CNV , indicating that the RH 102I10‐associated CNV can impact on the growth and development of the potato plants. Our results show that CNV is highly abundant in the potato genome and may play a significant role in genetic variation of this important food crop.