Effects of cadmium on SIRE1 retrotransposon polymorphism in wheat genome

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) reflect the plasticity and evolution of genomes throughout the tree of life and represent a large part of the repetitive sequences of plant genomes as well as the resulting diversity. The activity of retrotransposons, which lead to epigenetic changes as a result of the influence of various abiotic stress factors, and the determination of their polymorphism ratios form the basis of this research work. For this purpose, the SIRE1 retrotransposon specific to the soybean plant was determined by the IRAP marker method in callus and leaf samples of wheat plants subjected to CdSO4 stress. In contrast to the callus samples, bands were identified in the 750–1750 bp range in the leaf samples. While no polymorphism was detected in the callus, a polymorphism rate of 0-20% was calculated in leaf samples. Based on the results of the research, the determination of soybean-specific retrotransposons in wheat can be explained by the possibility of horizontal gene transfer.