On Friday, February 26, Jérôme Salse, Research Director for the Paleogenomics and Evolution (PaleoEvo) team with the Joint Research Unit on the Genetics, Diversity and Ecophysiology of Cereals (GDEC) – INRA, Clermont-Ferrand, and a specialist on the organization and evolution of plant genomes, will present a conference entitled: “Reconstruction of end uses of ancestral genomes of extinct plant and animal species”

Abstract :
In an attempt to unravel the structure and evolution of the cereal ancestor genome we have re-assed the synteny and duplications of the wheat, barley, rice, maize, Brachypodium and sorghum genomes to to identify and characterize shared duplications. We combined the data on the intra-genomic duplications with those on the colinear blocks and found duplicated segments that have been conserved at orthologous positions since the divergence of cereals. By conducting detailed analysis of the length, composition, and divergence time of the conserved duplications we identified common and lineage-specific patterns of conservation between the different genomes that allowed us to propose a model in which the grass genomes have evolved from a common ancestor with a basic number of five chromosomes (90 MYA) and then twelve chromosomes (60 MYA) through whole genome duplications (tetraploidization) and translocations followed by lineage specific segmental duplications, chromosome fusions and translocations (Salse et al. 2008, 2009; Abrouk et al. 2010; Murat et al. 2010). 

Follow this link to learn more about the PaleoEvo team  —  GDEC (PaléoEvo)

Click here for a complete list of Jérôme Salse’s publications : Publications