Helitron distribution in Brassicaceae and whole Genome Helitron density as a character for distinguishing plant species

• Published in: BMC bioinformatics Vol. 20; no. 1; p. 354
• Main Authors: Hu, Kaining, Xu, Kai, Wen, Jing, Yi, Bin, Shen, Jinxiong, Ma, Chaozhi, Fu, Tingdong, Ouyang, Yidan, Tu, Jinxing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 24-06-2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Arabidopsis; Arabidopsis thaliana; Bioinformatics; Brassicaceae; Chromosomes; Computational biology; Distribution; DNA; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genetic research; Genomes; Genomic evolution; Genomics; Identification and classification; Methods; Multivariate analysis; Natural history; Phenotypes; Physiological aspects; Plant classification; Plant evolution; Plant genetics; Plant molecular biology; Time; Transposable element; Transposons; UNIX; China; Genomic evolution; Plant classification; Transposable element; Multivariate analysis; Bioinformatics
• ISSN: 1471-2105; 1471-2105
• DOI: 10.1186/s12859-019-2945-8

Helitron is a rolling-circle DNA transposon; it plays an important role in plant evolution. However, Helitron distribution and contribution to evolution at the family level have not been previously investigated.
We developed the software easy-to-annotate Helitron (EAHelitron), a Unix-like command line, and used it to identify Helitrons in a wide range of 53 plant genomes (including 13 Brassicaceae species). We determined Helitron density (abundance/Mb) and visualized and examined Helitron distribution patterns. We identified more than 104,653 Helitrons, including many new Helitrons not predicted by other software. Whole genome Helitron density is independent from genome size and shows stability at the species level. Using linear discriminant analysis, de novo genomes (next-generation sequencing) were successfully classified into Arabidopsis thaliana groups. For most Brassicaceae species, Helitron density negatively correlated with gene density, and Helitron distribution patterns were similar to those of A. thaliana. They preferentially inserted into sequence around the centromere and intergenic region. We also associated 13 Helitron polymorphism loci with flowering-time phenotypes in 18 A. thaliana ecotypes.
EAHelitron is a fast and efficient tool to identify new Helitrons. Whole genome Helitron density can be an informative character for plant classification. Helitron insertion polymorphism could be used in association analysis.