Interspecies comparison of the highly-repeated DNA of Australasian Luzula (Juncaceae)

The woodrush genus Luzula is characterised by having holocentric chromosomes. DNA of nine related Australasian species shows similar satellite DNAs which re very similar in nucleotide sequence content and unit length. Differences between the repetitive DNAs are evident as either the presence or absence of particular restriction enzyme sites. Sequence variants have probably been introduced into the repeated DNA components of ancestral species and particular variants reamplified during the evolution of the genus. Sequence amplification appears to be restricted to sequences already present in the genome rather than the de novo generation of repeats. The evolution of highly-repeated DNA sequences dispersed throughout the holocentric chromosomes of Luzula thus appears to be very similar to that known in eukaryotes with the more normal monocentric chromosome organisation.