ABSTRACT
This is the first report on the presence of Ty3/gypsy-like retrotransposons in the centromeric region of Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum. The paper identifies the putative Ty3/gypsy centromeric retrotransposons (CR) among the DNA sequences of A. cepa present in the NCBI database and evaluates their copy number in the genomes of Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum. The putative copy number of Ty3/gypsy CR constituted about 26000 for A. cepa and about 7000 for A. fistulosum. The chromosomal organization of Ty3/gypsy CR was analyzed with the help of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The 300-bp PCR products synthesized with genomic DNA of Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum and primers designed for the sequence ET645811 of A. cepa (Genome Survey Sequence database), displaying similarity to the reverse transcriptase of the CR Ty3/gypsy family, served as FISH hybridization probes. On the chromosomes of A. cepa, hybridization signals were mainly localized in the centromeric region. On the chromosomes of A. fistulosum the signals were less expressed in the centromeric regions, though they were abundant in other chromosomal regions. The pathways of evolution in these closely related species are discussed.
