Giant Fern Genomes Show Complex Evolution Patterns: A Comparative Analysis in Two Species of <i>Tmesipteris</i> (Psilotaceae)

Abstract

Giant genomes are rare across the plant kingdom and their study has focused almost exclusively on angiosperms and gymnosperms. The scarce genetic data that are available for ferns, however, indicate differences in their genome organization and a lower dynamism compared to other plant groups. Tmesipteris is a small genus of mainly epiphytic ferns that occur in Oceania and several Pacific Islands. So far, only two species with giant genomes have been reported in the genus, T. tannensis (1C = 73.19 Gbp) and T. obliqua (1C = 147.29 Gbp). Low-coverage genome skimming sequence data were generated in these two species and analyzed using the RepeatExplorer2 pipeline to identify and quantify the repetitive DNA fraction of these genomes. We found that both species share a similar genomic composition, with high repeat diversity compared to taxa with small (1C Paris japonica, to determine if the structures observed here are an emergent property of massive genomic inflation or derived from lineage specific processes.

Keywords

• genome size
• polyploidy
• monilophytes
• pteridophytes
• repetitive DNA
• transposable elements