Lineage-specific conserved noncoding sequences of plant genomes: their possible role in nucleosome positioning

Many studies on conserved noncoding sequences (CNSs) have found that CNSs are enriched significantly in regulatory sequence elements. We conducted whole-genome analysis on plant CNSs to identify lineage-specific CNSs in eudicots, monocots, angiosperms,and vascular plants based on the premise that lineage-specific CNSs define lineage-specific characters and functions in groups of organisms. We identified 27 eudicot, 204 monocot, 6,536 grass, 19 angiosperm, and 2 vascular plant lineage-specific CNSs(lengths range from 16 to 1,517 bp) that presumably originated in their respective common ancestors. A stronger constraint on the CNSs located in the untranslated regions was observed. The CNSs were often flanked by genes involved in transcription regulation. A drop of A+T content near the border of CNSs was observed and CNS regions showed a higher nucleosome occupancy probability. These CNSs are candidate regulatory elements, which are expected to define lineage-specific features of various plant groups.