The Evolution Force of Genome Reduction in Carnivorous Plants

Abstract

The introns are widely present in the genome of eukaryotes and the distribution of intron varies greatly among different organisms or different genes. Generally, introns loss is an important way for uneven distribution of intron during genome evolution. In this study, two closely related carnivorous plants (Genlisea aurea and Utricularia gibba) were chosen, their genome were relatively integrity and high quality, especially, the large difference in genome size between them. We detected intron loss events, then investigated the relationship between the genome size, intron density, intron loss and the mutation rate in the carnivorous plants. Finally, a total of 752 and 124 intron loss positions were identified in G. aurea and U. gibba, respectively. In carnivorous plants, we found that the region around lost site had high mutation rate, the genes of intron loss had high mutation rate. Besides, for the species with more intron losses, the genome size was smaller and the mutation rate was higher. Thus, we propose that the mutation rate was positively correlated with intron losses, but negatively correlated with intron number and genome size. These could be explained by the selection to minimize mutational hazards.