Survey and analysis of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) present in the genomes of plant viroids
Lü Qin,
Zhixiang Zhang,
Xiangyan Zhao,
Xiaolong Wu,
Yubao Chen,
Zhongyang Tan,
Shifang Li
Affiliations
Lü Qin
State Key Laboratory of Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Zhixiang Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Xiangyan Zhao
College of Biology, State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Xiaolong Wu
College of Biology, State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Yubao Chen
Department of Computational Biology, Beijing Computing Center, Yongfeng Industry Base, Beijing 100094, China
Zhongyang Tan
State Key Laboratory of Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Shifang Li
State Key Laboratory of Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
Extensive simple sequence repeat (SSR) surveys have been performed for eukaryotic prokaryotic and viral genomes, but information regarding SSRs in viroids is limited. We undertook a survey to examine the presence of SSRs in viroid genomes. Our results show that the distribution of SSRs in viroids may influence secondary structure, and that SSRs could play a role in generating genetic diversity. We also discuss the potential evolutionary role of repeated sequences in the viroid genome. This is the first report of SSR loci in viroids, and our study could be helpful in understanding the structure and evolution of viroid genomes.
