Genome-Wide Survey and Comparative Analysis of Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) Retrotransposon Families in Four Gossypium Species

Long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon is the most abundant DNA component and is largely responsible for plant genome size variation. Although it has been studied in plant species, very limited data is available for cotton, the most important fiber and texture crop. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of LTR retrotransposon families across four cotton species. In tetraploid Gossypium species, LTR retrotransposon families from the progenitor D genome had more copies in D-subgenome, and families from the progenitor A genome had more copies in A-subgenome. Some LTR retrotransposon families that insert after polyploid formation may still distribute the majority of its copies in one of the subgenomes. The data also shows that families of 10~200 copies are abundant and they have a great influence on the Gossypium genome size; on the contrary, a small number of high copy LTR retrotransposon families have less contribution to the genome size. Kimura distance distribution indicates that high copy number family is not a recent outbreak, and there is no obvious relationship between family copy number and the period of evolution. Further analysis reveals that each LTR retrotransposon family may have their own distribution characteristics in cotton.