Zheru  Wang , Mengting  Luo

Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 2024, Vol. 15, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/cgg.2024.15.0015
Received: 02 Apr., 2024    Accepted: 14 May, 2024    Published: 01 Jun., 2024

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Wang Z.R., and Luo M.T., 2024, Genome size variation in Gossypium and its evolutionary implications, Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 15(3): 156-163 (doi: 10.5376/cgg.2024.15.0015)

There are significant differences in genome size in cotton, mainly due to differential expansion and structural variation of transposable elements. Comparative genomics shows that the differences in genome size are also influenced by chromosome rearrangement and accumulation of structural variation. Transposons, especially LTR retrotransposons, play a crucial role in genome size expansion, and polyploidy is an important driver of cotton genome evolution, resulting in increased nucleotide substitution rates and genome shrinkage after polyploidy. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the changes in genome size were closely related to the evolutionary history and speciation events of the genus, and the changes in genome size of Gossypnis were the result of complex evolutionary processes, including transposition element dynamics and structural rearrangement. Together, these factors form the genome structure and contribute to the adaptive evolution of Gossypium species. Understanding these mechanisms provides valuable insights into the evolutionary biology of cotton and informs future genetic improvement efforts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in genome size of Gossypnis and their evolutionary implications, and to understand how these factors affect the evolutionary trajectory of Gossypnis species by investigating the underlying mechanisms of genome size changes.

Gossypium; Genome size variation; Transposable elements; Polyploidy; Evolutionary genomics