Perspectives

Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 77-84 (January 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrg1970

OpinionRecombination: an underappreciated factor in the evolution of plant genomes

Brandon S. Gaut1, Stephen I. Wright2, Carène Rizzon3, Jan Dvorak4 & Lorinda K. Anderson5  About the authors

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Our knowledge of recombination rates and patterns in plants is far from being comprehensive. However, compelling evidence indicates a central role for recombination, through its influences on mutation and selection, in the evolution of plant genomes. Furthermore, recombination seems to be generally higher and more variable in plants than in animals, which could be one of the primary reasons for differences in genome lability between these two kingdoms. Much additional study of recombination in plants is needed to investigate these ideas further.

Author affiliations

  1. Brandon S. Gaut is at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA.
  2. Stephen I. Wright is at the Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  3. Carène Rizzon is at the Department of Statistics and Genome, University of Evry Val d'Essonne, Evry, 91034, France.
  4. Jan Dvorak is at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA.
  5. Lorinda K. Anderson is at the Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.

Correspondence to: Brandon S. Gaut1 Email: bgaut@uci.edu

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