Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
Amanda Bortolini Silveira
Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
George F Mayhew
Roche NimbleGen, Inc, Madison, United States
Chantal LeBlanc
Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, United States
Robert A Martienssen
Watson School of Biological Sciences, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Palo Alto, United States; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, United States
Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
Transposable elements (TEs) are powerful motors of genome evolution yet a comprehensive assessment of recent transposition activity at the species level is lacking for most organisms. Here, using genome sequencing data for 211 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions taken from across the globe, we identify thousands of recent transposition events involving half of the 326 TE families annotated in this plant species. We further show that the composition and activity of the 'mobilome' vary extensively between accessions in relation to climate and genetic factors. Moreover, TEs insert equally throughout the genome and are rapidly purged by natural selection from gene-rich regions because they frequently affect genes, in multiple ways. Remarkably, loci controlling adaptive responses to the environment are the most frequent transposition targets observed. These findings demonstrate the pervasive, species-wide impact that a rich mobilome can have and the importance of transposition as a recurrent generator of large-effect alleles.
