No end in sight, mysteries of the telomeric variation in plants

Co-sponsored by the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics

Abstract:
One of the most fascinating phenomena in evolutionary biology is the rapid evolution of molecular complexes with conserved functions across the tree of life. Because cellular and organismal development processes are highly conserved across eukaryotes, a naive evolutionary expectation is that the genes involved in those processes would also be under high selective constraint and evolve extremely slowly. The telomere, for example, is one such conserved molecular complex. The telomere has crucial functions that cap chromosome ends for protection and proper elongation. Because of this vital function, one might expect the components of the telomere would be highly conserved and constrained from evolutionary change. However, in this talk I will introduce the fascinating variation observed in plant telomeres. I will present recent results from my group that highlights the highly variable telomere length polymorphism and telomere sequence variation from plant species Arabidopsis, rice, maize, and Monkeyflowers. From our results I propose a biological link between the telomere and plant life-history strategies, which underlies the evolutionary mechanism that drives the telomeric variation in plants.

About the Speaker:
Jae is an Assistant Professor in Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University studying Drosophila population genetics and was a postdoc at New York University studying plant evolutionary genomics. Jae is interested in combining population and functional genomics to understand the evolution and function of the natural variation observed within plant populations. Learn more about Jae Young Choi.

Contact

Jill Hamilton
jvh6349@psu.edu