The Evolutionary Dynamics of a Novel Miniature Transposable Element in the Wheat Genome.

The discovery of , a wheat-unique miniature transposable element family, was reported in our previous study. We have also shown the possible impact of insertions on the expression of wheat genes. However, the evolutionary dynamics of was not studied in detail. In this study, we have assessed the insertion sites of family in different wheat species. analysis of insertions has allowed the discovery of two different sequence versions of , and that might have been recently active in wild emmer wheat genome ( ssp ). In addition, the analysis of insertional polymorphism has facilitated the discovery of large genomic rearrangement events, such as deletions and introgressions in the wheat genome. The dynamics of family sheds light on the evolution of wheat.