Au Elements and Their Evolution in Some Allopolyploid Genomes of Aegilops

To study the sequences of short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) evolution in some allopolyploid genomes of Aegilops, 108 Au element fragments (a novel kind of plant SINE) were amplified and sequenced in 10 species of Aegilops, which were clustered into three different groups (A, B and C) based on their related genome types. The sequences of these Au element fragments were heterogonous in di-, tetra-, and hexa-ploids, and the dendrograms of Au element obtained from phylogenetic analysis were very complex in each group and could be clustered into 15, 15 and 22 families, respectively. In this study, three rules about Au elements evolution have been drawn from the results: i. Most families were composed of Au element members with different host species in three groups; ii. Family 1–6 in Group A, Family 1–6 in Group B, Family 1–4 and Family 6–13 in Group C contained only one, apparently highly degenerate Au element member (a single representative element); iii. Elements generally fell into clades that were species-specific with respect to their host species. The potential mechanisms of Au element evolution in Aegilops were discussed.