Genome-Wide Comparative Analysis of the Transposable Elements in the Related Species Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica oleracea

Transposable elements (TEs) are the major component of plant genomes where they contribute significantly to the >1,000-fold genome size variation. To understand the dynamics of TE-mediated genome expansion, we have undertaken a comparative analysis of the TEs in two related organisms: the weed Arabidopsis thaliana (125 megabases) and Brassica oleracea (≈600 megabases), a species with many crop plants. Comparison of the whole genome sequence of A. thaliana with a partial draft of B. oleracea has permitted an estimation of the patterns of TE amplification, diversification, and loss that has occurred in related species since their divergence from a common ancestor. Although we find that nearly all TE lineages are shared, the number of elements in each lineage is almost always greater in B. oleracea. Class 1 (retro) elements are the most abundant TE class in both species with LTR and non-LTR elements comprising the largest fraction of each genome. However, several families of class 2 (DNA) elements have amplified to very high copy number in B. oleracea where they have contributed significantly to genome expansion. Taken together, the results of this analysis indicate that amplification of both class 1 and class 2 TEs is responsible, in part, for B. oleracea genome expansion since divergence from a common ancestor with A. thaliana. In addition, the observation that B. oleracea and A. thaliana share virtually all TE lineages makes it unlikely that wholesale removal of TEs is responsible for the compact genome of A. thaliana.