Dynamics of the Reptilian Repetitive DNA Landscape and the Evolution of Amniote Genome Structure -- Presented by Dr. Andrew Shedlock

The emerging field of comparative genomics has underscored the impact of transposable elements (TEs) as drivers of genetic diversity, factors in gene regulation and powerful diagnostic markers for inferring common ancestry among host lineages.  In particular, large-scale sequence analysis of Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) libraries provides an experimental means to investigate poorly known genomes of non-model species of evolutionary importance in advance of practically limited whole genome sequencing initiatives. Characterizing genome structure in reptilians, the sister group of mammals, using BAC resources is helping close the present large information gap in the study of comparative vertebrate genomics.  Phylogenomic investigations for a diversity of reptilian species provide a glimpse of the extensive clade-specific retropositional dynamics that have facilitated amniote diversification.  Large-scale self-alignment schemes of pre-published lizard genome assembly data and syntenic profiling between avian and non-avian scaffold sequence also provide a window on the relationship between TEs and microchromosome formation and the impact of non-coding mobile DNA on the evolution of amniote transcriptome structure and function.