Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference
Workshop: Plant Cytogenetics
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Fluorescent in situ and micro-array hybridization have major applications in studying the structure and evolution of DNA sequences in genomes, whether in the short times associated with disease syndromes or plant breeding, over the many generations associated with generation of biodiversity, or in the time-scales associated with species evolution. The majority of the DNA in the genomes of both plants and animals consists of repetitive DNA sequences of different classes distributed over the chromosome complement. Fluorescent in situ hybridization provides information about the spatial organization of DNA sequences along chromosomes and genomes and by comparing distribution patterns between species important conclusion about modes of amplification and evolution of different families of repeated elements can be made. The screening capacity of micro-arrays means that the structure, abundance and detailed sequence of repeats can be assayed in a comparative and massively parallel manner. Thus even small differences between organisms can be detected in sequences that are parts of the most rapidly evolving genomic structures, where gene sequences will remain closely similar. Webpage: www.le.ac.uk/biology/blphh4.htm