Genome evolution in Arabidopsis/Brassica: conservation and divergence of ancient rearranged segments and their breakpoints

Since the tetraploidization of the Arabidopsis thaliana ancestor 30-35 million years ago (Mya), a wave of chromosomal rearrangements have modified its genome architecture. The dynamics of this process is unknown, as it has so far been impossible to date individual rearrangement events. In this paper, we present evidence demonstrating that the majority of rearrangements occurred before the Arabidopsis-Brassica split 20-24 Mya, and that the segmental architecture of the A. thaliana genome is predominantly conserved in Brassica. This finding is based on the conservation of four rearrangement breakpoints analysed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and RFLP mapping of three A. thaliana chromosomal regions. For this purpose, 95 Arabidopsis bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) spanning a total of 8.25 Mb and 81 genetic loci for 36 marker genes were studied in the Brassica oleracea genome. All the regions under study were triplicated in the B. oleracea genome, confirming the hypothesis of Brassica ancestral genome triplication. However, whilst one of the breakpoints was conserved at one locus, it was not at the two others. Further comparison of their organization may indicate that the evolution of the hexaploid Brassica progenitor proceeded by several events, separated in time. Genetic mapping and reprobing with rDNA allowed assignment of the regions to particular Brassica chromosomes. Based on this study of regional organization and evolution, a new insight into polyploidization/diploidization cycles is proposed.