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Variation in the ribosomal RNA genes among individuals of Vicia faba

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Summary

Length heterogeneity in the ribosomal repeat of Vicia faba is due to the presence of variable numbers of a 325 bp subrepetitive element within the nontranscribed spacer region. The distribution of size classes among 88 individuals within a population was investigated by blot-hybridization. We find that individual plants can exhibit more than 20 size classes and that hybridization patterns are highly diverse from individual to individual, more so than for any species so far investigated. In contrast, no such differences are observed in patterns for different tissues from a single plant or from parental to F1 generation. Some changes were observed in the F2 generation. We conclude that unequal recombination can give rise to the diversity that we observe for the V. faba rDNA repeats.

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Author notes

  1. Sandra Honda

    Present address: Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Medical Center, 77030, Houston, TX, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, WA, USA

    Scott O. Rogers & Sandra Honda

  2. Department of Botany and Genetics, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, WA, USA

    Arnold J. Bendich

Authors
  1. Scott O. Rogers
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  2. Sandra Honda
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  3. Arnold J. Bendich
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Rogers, S.O., Honda, S. & Bendich, A.J. Variation in the ribosomal RNA genes among individuals of Vicia faba . Plant Mol Biol 6, 339–345 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00034941

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00034941

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